Tajuana McKinley — the mother of shooting victim Malcolm Watson — banged her fists on the court podium, blaring words against the man suspected in her son’s murder.

The heated hearing marked the first court appearance for 46-year-old Lumumba Sayers Sr., who was officially charged with first-degree murder and two counts of menacing by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office Thursday morning following the alleged shooting of Watson on Saturday.

“If you let this man out, it’s your fault if guns and bloodshed go on in this community,” McKinley said to 17th Judicial Judge Jeffrey Ruff. “This is not over, by far on any side. This is going to go on, your honor.”

McKinley was eventually escorted from the court room during Sayer’s bond hearing Thursday morning, sharing heated words with the fully packed pews on the defendant’s side.

The victim’s side — also packed to the point of having to extend to an additional courtroom — cried and cheered as McKinley walked away.

Pool party shooting

The incident occurred around 5 p.m. Saturday at the Paradice Island Pool at Pioneer Park in Commerce City. 

The Commerce City Police Department received multiple calls that 10-20 shots had been fired at the pool during Watson’s five-year-old son’s birthday party. 

Upon arrival, officers found a man walking toward a black Cadillac Escalade while bystanders yelled that the man — later identified as Sayers Sr. — was the shooter. 

Watson, 28, had been shot in the head during the party, and a semi-automatic pistol with a loaded magazine laid on the ground next to him, according to the arrest affidavit. 

Multiple witnesses told investigators that Sayers Sr., who was not invited to the party, had walked up and shot Watson at close range. He also allegedly pointed a gun at a bystander, took keys from Watson’s body and attempted to place the handgun under him. 

Anniversary of son’s death

The shooting came nearly a year after Sayers Sr.’s 23-year-old son, Lumumba Sayers Jr., was shot and killed on Aug. 19, 2023, at 28th and Welton streets in Denver during a quadruple shooting that left Sayers Jr. and 25-year-old Gulian Musiwa dead.

Sayers Jr. — an open anti-violence activist who created Glovez Up Gunz Down Get Your Heads Up in the Hood, a nonprofit organization which guided youth to ditch their guns and, instead, use their voices to solve their problems — was allegedly protecting his sister during the shooting.

Suspect Tyrell Braxton, 24, was arrested a month after the shooting on suspicion of first-degree murder and first-degree assault. But that case has been sealed and the Denver District Attorney could not talk about its disposition. Denver Police Department has announced no other arrests in the year-old double homicide.

Sayers Sr.’s arrest affidavit noted that Watson and Braxton were friends.

History of anti-violence

In 2015, former MMA fighter Sayers Sr. built a community center in an unassuming building at 2360 Dayton in Aurora and called it Heavy Hands, Heavy Hearts Center. The foundation’s aim was to pull kids off of the streets with movie nights, Thanksgiving dinners, fitness classes, mountain camping trips and girl’s empowerment gatherings. Fundraising events were aimed at youth violence prevention.

And at his son’s celebration of life, he had called on the community to have the courage to stand up to evil.

“How many of y’all are going to step away from your gang and hold the hood accountable for what they’re doing?” he said. “We’ve learned to sweep murders and assaults under the rug and hide these people in plain sight and they keep killing our kids. Who’s gonna hold the ‘hood accountable for what they’re doing to our kids?”

Prior to the Saturday shooting, friends say that Sayers Sr. held a fundraiser to raise money for children’s school supplies and handed out backpacks.

Raised bond

Sayers Sr.’s history of anti-violence activism in the community was the main pillar of defense attorney Megan Downing’s argument to lower the suspect’s bail from the $1 million cash-only bond initially set.

Downing added that the affidavit raised many questions, like the 10-20 shots reported despite only four empty cases found near Watson’s body. Also, another man, described to be dressed in tan, was identified as a shooter by a witness.

“While there are a number of questions raised about this case, what is clearly not in question is that you are dealing with an individual in this community who is nothing short of exceptional,” Downing said. 

Downing pointed toward a collection of letters that the judge had already received boasting Sayers Sr.’s character and claiming how important he was for anti-violence activism in the community.  

“This case is a complex anomaly that I’ve never seen,” Downing continued. “At the end of the day, you have a person very deserving of a meaningful bond who has more substantial ties to the community than frankly most anyone I’ve ever seen.”

Senior Lead Deputy District Attorney Laura Anderson, and multiple family members of Watson, disagreed that the bond should be lowered, claiming that friends and family are fearful of Sayers Sr. continuing an alleged revenge plot.

“He is a man on a vengeance, and a man on a vengeance does not deserve to be a part of our community,” Denesha Stevenson, Watson’s older sister, said. “It was not only a murder, but a murder at a community pool in front of hundreds of children and families.”

“If you let this man out on a lower bond, you, as a judge, you are telling this community that make a couple of slogans, pat a couple of kids on the back, give out some backpacks — and a couple of weeks later, during the process of planning my backpack drive, I could be plotting the murder of another man who had nothing to do with my son’s death,” McKinley told the judge. 

Ruff ultimately increased Sayers Sr.’s bond to $5 million cash only. 

“The paramount issues in the bonding statute are really twofold,” Ruff said. “The court’s belief that you will return on bond for your hearings and the safety to the community, and the subset of that, the safety to the victims. Those are the factors I have to consider.”

Sayers Sr. is scheduled to next be in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 4, at which time prosecutors will present enough evidence to the judge to send the case to trial.

The Denver Gazette reporter Carol McKinley contributed to this story.