VIA EURWEB:
Boxing champ Vernon “The Viper” Forrest is dead after confronting a man in Atlanta who then shot him multiple times in the back Saturday night.
Police say that after being robbed at gunpoint at a southwest Atlanta gas station, Forrest grabbed his own gun and ran after the perpetrator.
“Vernon walked up to the guy” he was chasing, said Atlanta Police Detective Lt. Keith Meadows, citing a witness account. “Then, at some point, [Forrest] turned and walked away.”
That’s when the man shot the champion boxer seven or eight times in the back, Meadows told AJC.com.
It’s unclear whether Forrest thought he was encountering the wrong man when he turned around, police said.
The incident began at 11 p.m. at the Chevron on Whitehall Street in Southwest Atlanta when Forrest, 38, was about to put air in the tires of his Jaguar, said Meadows.
A male suspect approached Forrest and robbed him of a few items at gunpoint, he said. Forrest, who was also armed, chased the suspect to an area near McDaniel and Fulton Streets.
Police are looking for that man and a second suspect who left in a red Monte Carlo, police said.
Police also said there is evidence Forrest used his weapon but did not know if the suspect was shot.
