A man has been arrested in connection with the July shooting death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest, Atlanta police said Tuesday night.
Demario Ware, 20, turned himself in to police on Tuesday and is being held in the Fulton County jail on charges of murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault, Atlanta police said. Forrest, 38, was shot in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta on the night of July 25. Police and his longtime manager have said Forrest was robbed, leading to a confrontation in which he was shot several times. Forrest died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and thigh, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Information on what led police to suspect Ware in Forrest’s death wasn’t immediately available. The case still is under investigation, said Officer J. Polite Jr., Atlanta police spokesman. Forrest’s longtime friend and manager, Charles Watson, said last month that Forrest was returning from the gym after a late workout when he and his godson stopped at a Southwest Atlanta gas station on the night Forrest was shot. While Forrest was at the gas station, a man snatched his wallet out of his hand after asking him for money, said Watson, who spoke to police and the godson.
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Atlanta police told CNN affiliate WSB-TV in July that Forrest chased the suspect and that gunfire was exchanged. Forrest was the International Boxing Council junior welterweight champion in 1995, the World Boxing Council continental welterweight champion in 1997, the North American Boxing Federation welterweight champion from 1998 to 2000, the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion in 2001, the WBC welterweight champion in 2002-2003, and the WBC light welterweight champion in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, according to the BoxRec Web site. He was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002, according to BoxRec.
