By Canadian Press

‘Held him in my arms:’ Witness describes fatal shooting of Calgary Stampeder

Dec 5, 2018 | 2:38 PM

CALGARY — The mother of a Calgary Stampeders player who died in a shooting outside a bar wept as a witness described holding Mylan Hicks in his arms before paramedics arrived.

Nelson Lugela, who is 21, is on trial for second-degree murder in Hicks’s death on Sept. 25, 2016.

Carlos Tejada-Colindres had been at Calgary’s Marquee Beer Market with a couple of friends and was talking with a woman outside the bar after it closed.

“I heard something that sounded like a firecracker, like a little explosive kind of thing. I turned around and there was the shots being fired,” Tejada-Colindres told court Wednesday. “I saw a gentleman pointing a gun and shooting.”

Tejada-Colindres said Hicks took off after the first shot was fired.

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“His pants were falling down and then he fell on the floor and kind of like tripped on his pants,” he said. “I ran toward Mylan Hicks and kind of just wanted to check on him … to see if he was bleeding or anything like that.

“I grabbed Mylan and I held him in my arms,” he continued as Hicks’s mother cried in the courtroom.

“I had already unbuttoned his shirt to see if he was bleeding. He wasn’t bleeding — it was just like the gunshot wound.”

Jamie Guy and her girlfriend Celine were outside the bar talking to Stamps running back Jerome Messam when they heard a gunshot.

“Then the shooter came around the corner and fired the gun again and then Celine and I ran behind the building,” she told court.

The shooter was a black man, about six feet tall, close to 200 pounds with spiky hair wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, she added. 

“I couldn’t tell who he was shooting at.”

Another woman at the bar that night testified Lugela was one of the instigators in an altercation with a group of Stampeders.

Hilary Jeavons says Lugela approached the players at least twice, was aggressive and bumped into her numerous times without apologizing.

“A fella in a white T-shirt and a white hat came to the bar on my right. He bumped me out of the way. He was yelling, obnoxious,” Jeavons testified.

“This man was aggressive and he acted like he was untouchable really.”

Jeavons said she was outside the bar when she heard two gunshots before giving Stampeders defensive back Joe Burnett a ride home.

“When we were driving, I had told Joe I really, really pray that your team is OK and I know who shot that gun by his actions in the bar,” she said.

Defence lawyer Alain Hepner asked Jeavons how she was so certain that Lugela was the shooter.

“Nobody else bumps a girl out of their way — he did,” she said.

“So therefore he’s the shooter? That’s your conclusion?” Hepner asked.

“That’s how I felt. I knew who it was and when I saw his picture, it confirmed it. Yup. I’m sorry I was right.”

Hicks was shot twice — once in the abdomen and once in the chest — and died a short time later.

Hicks, who was 23, was a member of the Stampeders practice roster. Court has already heard the team was out celebrating a win over Winnipeg when the shooting happened.

The shooter and two other young men jumped into an SUV and sped away. Police arrested three people about 45 minutes later when they returned to the scene.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press