Stampeder teammates tell court about slain player’s dying moments
Two burly football players were reduced to tears in a Calgary courtroom Monday when they separately testified about the dying moments of their slain teammate.
Both current Calgary Stampeders offensive lineman Derek Dennis and former running back Jerome Messam described the aftermath to Mylan Hicks being fatally shot outside a city nightclub.
“I told him, ‘just hold on Mylan,’” Dennis recalled, as he wiped away tears with a Kleenex.
Dennis said he had just pulled up to pick up two teammates to go for an after-hours bite at a restaurant when he heard a commotion by the door to Marquee Beer Market on Macleod Trail.
“I heard a glass bottle break; that’s what really got my attention,” the witness told Crown prosecutor Gord Haight.
“I couldn’t make out exactly who was tussling.”
Dennis said he began to get out of his car to investigate.
“As I’m getting out of the car, I heard a gunshot,” he said. “It startled me, so I stopped.” At that point he saw Hicks running in his direction and the gunman shoot him.
“As he’s stumbling, the shooter takes a third shot,” Dennis said, as Hicks’s mother, Renee Hill wept in the courtroom gallery.
Charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 25, 2016, slaying of the defensive back is Calgarian Nelson Lugela.
Messam said he was at the bar earlier when there was a dispute between a friend of Lugela (who he identified as the gunman) and kicker Rene Paredes.
Messam said he felt guilty over Hicks’ death, since the deceased wasn’t even present for the dispute and he taunted Lugela’s friend by removing his hat before giving it back.
“The messed-up thing about this is when all of this is taking place, Mylan was in the back (of the club),” Messam said. “He knew none of this was going on,” he said, his voice cracking and tears streaming down his face. “I felt a lot of guilt for provoking the guy with the hat.”
The one-time star running back said he’d left the club around closing time and was around the corner relieving himself when the conflict at the front door occurred.
“I don’t know what transpired in the front of the club,” he said.
“I heard pow, and I heard pow, pow and people were running and then I seen someone slowly walking to the car and then slide down; I didn’t know it was Mylan.”
Messam, who was born in Brampton, Ont., didn’t realize the noises he heard were shots being fired. “I didn’t think it was gunshots because I didn’t think anybody in Calgary would be shooting a gun,” he said.
When he realized what had occurred, he rushed to Hicks’s side.
“We turned him over and saw the hole,” he said, pointing to his right chest.
“I just took his head and I said, ‘Fight man.’ I just told him to fight.
“His eyes were still open and I thought he was going to be OK ’cause he’s strong,” Messam said.
“That’s the last time I saw Mylan Hicks.”
The trial continues on Tuesday.