Two dozen friends and family members of a young Siksika man killed nearly a year ago showed up at court Monday, many of them wearing green jerseys with Kristian Ayoungman’s name and his No. 14 on the back.

Ayoungman died on March 17, 2019, on a rural highway near Strathmore, east of Calgary. 

He had been shot.

The Siksika Nation member was a Junior B hockey player for the Siksika Buffaloes senior AA hockey team and formerly played with Strathmore’s Wheatland Kings.

The 24-year-old was also a champion powwow dancer on the reserve.

Two brothers, Brandon Daniel Giffen, 25, and Kody Allan Giffen, 22, are both charged with first-degree murder. However, prosecutors Ron Simenik and Lynda Levesque indicated they’ll be seeking committal on a charge of manslaughter for Kody while pursuing a first-degree murder trial for Brandon.

All of the evidence presented during the five-day hearing is protected by a publication ban.

At the end, provincial court Judge Heather Lamoureux will rule whether there is enough evidence for the two brothers to go to trial.

In interviews done with CBC News last year, friends of Ayoungman’s who were with him when he was killed said two groups of friends — Ayoungman’s and the Giffens’ — got into a fight at a Strathmore bar.

They separated but later the same night encountered each other again.

Breanna Crawler said she was driving away when Ayoungman was fatally shot as he sat in the front seat of the truck.

The Giffen brothers were charged days later.

Brandon Giffen is in custody and Kody Giffen was granted bail in August. They are represented by defence lawyers Mitch Stevenson and Shelley Moore. 

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