July 26th, 2009, 10:24 am
Recent WBC junior middleweight champion and 1992 U.S. Olympian Vernon Forrest was shot and killed Saturday night during an attempted carjacking, WSB Radio in Atlanta has reported, citing a police spokesman.
But Forrest had a gun and confronted the men, police said.
"The victim and suspect became involved in a brief foot chase," Lt. Meadows said. "At some point, gunfire was exchanged between the two of them. The victim was shot at least once in the head."
Forrest, 38, was fatally wounded by two semi-automatic weapons, according to police.
"At this point we have a general description of at least two black males driving a red Monte Carlo," Meadows said, according to the report.
Police said the suspects likely didn't know Forrest, whose girlfriend's young son was in the car when he was shot.
Forrest, who lived in Atlanta and was a native of Augusta, Ga., beat Sugar Shane Mosley twice in 2002. Forrest and Sergio Martinez, 34, were scheduled to fight Aug. 1 on Showtime.
However, Forrest, who hadn't fought since regaining the belt from Sergio Mora in a September rematch, suffered the rib injury training for an April tune-up fight against Jason LeHoullier.
Forrest, who had a 41-3 career record with 29 knockouts, withdrew from that fight and still hadn't recovered enough to go through with the fight against Martinez.
Information from ESPN.com's Dan Rafael was used in this report.