R.I.P. Vernon, you were a champion, you EARNED EVERYTHING you got in boxing! Thoughts are with your family CHAMP!!
Im deeply saddened and shocked by the death of Vernon Forrest, Arturo Gatti was one of my idols for the fact that he put his body through sheer hell to give me and many other boxing fans some of the most exciting fights in the last 20 years while Vernon never matched Gatti for excitement levels but i always admired him for his work with the mentally disabled,His all round great boxing skills which was something i never tired of watching and his humbleness. Forrest was one of the good guys in boxing never getting in to trash talking but doing his talking in the ring we have lost a fine ambassoder to this fine sport may he R.I.P.
Here is the latest from the AJC: The incident began at 11 p.m. at the Chevron on Whitehall Street in Southwest Atlanta when Forrest, 38, stopped to put air in the tires of his Jaguar, said Atlanta Police Detective Lt. Keith Meadows. A male suspect approached Forrest and robbed him of a few items at gunpoint, he said. Forrest, who was also armed, then chased the suspect to an area near McDaniel and Fulton Streets. Forrest was shot seven to eight times in the back, Meadows said. Meadows said there is evidence Forrest used his weapon but did not know if the suspect was shot. An 11-year-old boy, described as a godson by Forrests manager Charles Watson, was in the Chevron at the time of the robbery. The boy is the son of Forrests girlfriend, Meadows said, and was able to provide police with a description of the suspect. Police are looking for that man and a second suspect who left in a red Monte Carlo, Meadows said. The boy did not see the shooting, he added. The APD is interviewing several witnesses Sunday.
****, the kid was eleven? :-( At first I thought it may have been a baby, in which case at least the traumatic memory wouldn't stick...but..ugh. Terrible.