Mother of slain Stampeder Hicks bolts from court
Grieving mom Renee Hill ran crying from a Calgary courtroom Friday as the last of her son Mylan Hicks’s former Calgary Stampeders teammates described his fatal shooting. Jamal Nixon, who was a wide receiver with the team during the 2016 season, described the events which ended with Hicks dead outside a Calgary nightclub.
Nixon identified accused Nelson Lugela as the gunman who pulled out a weapon outside the Marquee Beer Market in the early morning hours of Sept. 25, 2016.
Lugela, 21, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with Hicks’s shooting death.
Nixon said he and a group of fellow Stampeders were standing outside the club shortly after closing time, chatting with other bar patrons. “A crowd of guys started walking towards us,” Nixon told Crown prosecutor Gord Haight. “I paid no mind to them,” he said. At that point, teammate Bakari Grant told one of the men, “We’re not here for that.”
“I kind of pulled him back ... as I pulled Bakari back there’s a lot of shoving,” Nixon said. “At that point ... I heard a bottle break.
“We could see the guy in the white shirt (whom he identified as Lugela). He ran in front of the crowd and he ended up pulling a gun out.”
Nixon said the man pulled the weapon from the front of his waistband. “He was like standing directly in front of us.”
He said he couldn’t recall which hand the gun was in.
“As he pulled the gun out, we parted ways,” said Nixon, explaining he fled the immediate area.
“Did you hear anything?” Haight asked.
“Yeah, gunshots.”
“Are you able to say how many you heard?”
“Roughly around three, or four,” Nixon said.
After fleeing, Nixon returned to the area a short time later and saw the gunman jump into a Porsche SUV before that vehicle fled.
Haight asked Nixon if he’d be able to identify the gunman.
“That guy right over there,” he said, pointing to Lugela in the prisoner’s box as Hill let out a loud sob.
After the SUV left, Nixon went over to where Hicks was on the ground as teammate Derek Dennis yelled out, “Mylan’s been hit, Mylan’s been hit.”
He then described seeing Hicks lying behind a car as Hill raced from the courtroom crying.
“I ended up turning Mylan over and I sat there with him until the paramedics showed up.”
Meanwhile, video expert Kathy McCaw began her testimony going over frame by frame of dash cam videos taken from two taxis outside the club. Her testimony continues on Monday.