Vernon Forrest's post to his Twitter page last week: “Man I had a nightmare last nite I dreamt I come home and found 4 guys were breaking into my house. I pull my heater and it was empty they chased me and was about to shoot me then I woke up. The first thing I did was get my heater and made sure it was loaded. That dream will not come true.” http://www.theinsider.com/news/2609685_Vernon_Forrest_s_Nightmare_Became_Reality
I am usually indifferent to most deaths but this one got me. RIP VF. I am lost with this story though. 1. Why would VF chase after thieves with a loaded gun? Why would he chase after thieves at all? 2. What was he going to do had he caught them? Arrest them? Shoot them? 3. How did he manage to get his own gun from the car while being robbed? Or was he already carrying his gun? 4. If the thieves had their guns drawn, it is unlikely they would have run from VF, they would have shoot rather than run. Shots were exchanged and VF got the worse of the shoot out. The thieves have a case of self defence here. It was unwise of VF to chase thieves, this is why we have insurance. His JAG was presumably covered agaisnt theft. Loaded guns give a false sense of security. Hope this is a lesson to folks in general. Always avoid a shoot out UNLESS ur life is trully threatened.
Did everybody miss the part about there being a young child in the car when it was carjacked? Your kid is in the car and it gets jacked you're going to run after it, gun or no. Self-Defense? GTFOH!!! There is no such thing as self-defense once you jack somebody's car or break into their house. :shit:
" http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/pro-boxer-vernon-forrest-100822.html * the kid wasn't in the car. forrest was shot in the back
Never pull up into a gas station after dark. Nothing good will come of it. If you need to tank up or do maintenance on your vehicle, do it during the day and where there's a lot of people.
Well this does give a better insight to what happened. Atlanta’s other boxing champion, Evander Holyfield, recalled a story from the 1992 Olympics. When a thief snatched the cap from atop his head, Forrest ran after him through the streets of Barcelona. “Chased him about a half a mile. Got his hat back. And got in a few punches too,†said Holyfield, chuckling at the memory from another place, another time. VF has a history of chasing after thieves to rightfully get what belongs to him back. But if u choose to take this kinda attitude, u must know that there is a risk of a violent confrontation which would likely result in serious injury or death. If u choose to ignore this risk then be prepared for accept the consequense. Moral of the strory? Chasing thieves is stupid.
They didn't make that clear in the other article. Regardless, I don't cut the shooters any slack. They shot him in the back after he had already given up the chase. And he chased somebody who took something from him. That's understandable to me, insurance or not. Sometimes pride and anger of somebody having done something despicable to you gets in the way of common sense. Don't fault the victim.........fault the assholes who put these events into place to begin with. A fuckin' shame.
Good advice but a time would come when u just have to. Better is to put dangerous situations into perpective and manage them accordingly. For the most part those who put self-safety first would come off better. I would only go down defending my life than defending a property that is already insured. WTF?
that's why you aren't a professional prizefighter and/or former world champion. you don't embark on that sort of career being a passive guy or a guy that easily turns away from threatening behavior. unfortunately, vernon's aggressive first nature got the better of his judgement. many of you have to ask yourselves these sort of questions before questioning vernon's motives.
Zab Judah was robbed on the street of his hometown while driving his car. He quietly gave up his belongings and the thieves took off. Zab lived to fight another day.
Nope, it is by analysing and questioning Vernon's motives that would allow those with aggressive nature and pro prize fighters to evaluate and learn to put dangerous and highly charged situations into perspective. It is only when one can do this that common sense & better judgement can prevail, not by excusing poor judgement. It is an opportunity for the Vernons of this world to learn. And 'am sure some would while the family of others are just waiting to be the next widows and orphans. The underlying principle of martial arts is to suppress agrression and always strive to walk away in the first instance.
And the very first thing his kids would say to him after reading about VF's murder would be: Thank you daddy for "walking away".
The Vernon's of the world is the reason why there isn't more assholes in the street trying to steal your car and take your property. Vernon didn't think it was "OK" to be a victim. Why make it easy for criminals? :dunno: Sometimes it backfires, but I wish there were more Vernon Forrest's in the world then there are.
Because of the value of life? :dunno: Anyway, there would always be 2 ways of dealing with this. The Vernon way with its consequences. And the safety way with its consequenses. And we all have a right to choose either and we will.
these guys are all full of it. for example, if some asshole(s) broke into their homes, the first response isn't typically, "Thank God I wasn't home"...the initial reaction is, "Fuck, I wish I caught the motherfucker(s) in the act". at least that's how phonetap would respond...
All of you posters who ran in here to condemn with one broad stroke the entirety of owning firearms are a joke. You were stating your high moral opinion before you even knew what happened. Some of you didn't even verify whether or not his child was in the car at the time. According to the last report, Vernon Forrest was shot in the back, at a time when he wasn't threatening to shoot anyone, unless he was holding the gun behind his back and aiming with a mirror. He was not shot because he was a threat - he was shot because whoever robbed him was likely pissed that they got chased and probably ran away scared. So when they had a chance to be brave, they shot him in the back. Eight times. Are these the type of fellows you want to be the only ones with guns? The ones who rob, steal, and shoot people in the back? Not me. I want law abiding citizens to own guns so they at least have the chance to defend themselves against people like this. Vernon Forrest is not a good example of your typical gun owner, I think. I think that as a fighter he probably was a more aggressive, prouder person than most, and as a result he made bad decisions which led to him getting killed. Clearly based on this very occurrence, Forrest had a legitimate need for his gun, since armed thugs tried to steal his car, which very well could have had his kid in it at the time. The only thing to be condemned here, if anything at all, is the overly aggressive behavior exhibited by Vernon Forrest. And even then it may be stretch, since no one had any idea what would have happened had Forrest simply drawn the gun to protect himself and his property, and not given chase at all. He may very well have been shot in the back ANYWAY by these guys, since they ended up shooting him ultimately when he wasn't even a threat to them. And even if the facts of this case change, there are some people who would say that Forrest actually was doing all of use a favor by chasing down robbing, murdering thugs. Maybe he felt that these guys would just end up robbing or hurting somebody else tomorrow and he was trying to do something about it. I find it extremely hard to judge him on any of this, but of course I wish that whatever he decided to do, it was something that would have kept him alive. RIP Vernon Forrest.