Ex-boxing champ Forrest shot in back and killed

Former world champion boxer Vernon Forrest was shot over half a dozen times in the back and killed during an attempted robbery at a petrol station, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Forrest was shot on Saturday after chasing one of the thieves after they attempted to rob Forrest while he was putting air into the tyres of his Jaguar, the newspaper said.

"Everybody is in shock, everybody who knows Vernon or knows about him," Houston-based trainer Ronnie Shields told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. "He was always a good guy, never did anything to anybody, was respected in the boxing community.

This is tough for people to take because of who Vernon was."

The newspaper quoted Atlanta police spokesman Keith Meadow as saying Forrest was also armed and exchanged gunfire with the thieves in the southwest section of the crime-plagued American city. The 11-year-old son of Forrest's girlfriend was with him at the Chevron station at the time but did not witness the shooting.

"Vernon always was the type of guy who wasn't going to let anybody take anything from him," Watson said.

"He would give you the shirt off his back, but if you tried to take something from him, he was going to fight you for it." Forrest competed for the United States in the 1992 Olympics before turning pro.

He captured the International Boxing Federation welterweight title in 2001 and also became the World Boxing Coucil's middleweight champion.

The 38-year-old Forrest finished with a record of 41 wins, three losses and 29 knockouts.

He was named the 2002 Ring Magazine fighter of the year, the same year he twice defeated Shane Mosley.

ATLANTA, Georgia, Monday AFP