EdmontonSun.com (www.edmontonsun.com) has issued the following report from Eliza Barlow:

A clash over heavy-metal band METALLICA sparked a fatal fight aboard a city bus last March, two teenage witnesses testified in court yesterday.

A preliminary hearing is underway to determine whether four teen boys should go to trial for manslaughter in the March 2 bus beating death of Stefan Conley, 35.

Three of the accused were 17 and one was 16 at the time.

Yesterday, a 16-year-old boy who saw the fight told court it began as four boys were sitting in the back of the bus talking about heavy metal bands - Metallica in particular.

One of the boys was wearing a Metallica tuque and had a Metallica tattoo on his shoulder, the witness said.

Then Conley, also sitting in the back of the bus, butted into the discussion with his two cents about Metallica, and a dispute ensued between the four boys and Conley that got increasingly heated.

The witness said Conley told them, "You guys don't know metal. Metallica is nothing."

In response, the witness said, one of the boys undid his belt buckle and the top button of his pants, as if to invite Conley to perform oral sex on him.

That made Conley angry, said the witness. The witness said Conley stood up from his seat, went over to the boy and grabbed him by the jacket at his chest.

The other boys started yelling at Conley, "Get off him! Get off him!" and three of them proceeded to punch Conley in the face, the witness said.

The punches were "hard punches - giving it all they got."

The witness figured Conley was punched between five and 10 times in the face. They punched Conley until he let go of the boy's jacket, said the witness.

Conley, whose glasses had fallen off, appeared "dazed" and had blood coming from his mouth. He was wobbling and his eyes were looking upward, said the witness.

Then, as the four boys were getting off the bus, one of them gave Conley one last push with both hands against his chest, said the witness.

Conley took a backward freefall, bashing the back of his head against a bus seat and sliding between two seats, said the witness.

The witness couldn't say which boy gave the final shove. But a second witness yesterday, a 16-year-old girl who was also at the back of the bus, pointed out the boy seated in the courtroom who she said gave the final push.

Her account of the argument and fight was almost the same as that of the first witness. She said as an angry Conley grabbed the boy, he said, "I got four punk kids on me."

She also said that as the fight ended, it looked like Conley was trying to "catch his balance" before he was pushed.

Both witnesses said they were shocked to hear that Conley had died from the beating. And both said they never saw anyone kick Conley or stomp on him.

Conley was later pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

The names of youth witnesses can't be printed.