Forrest’s family asks boxer’s killer to surrender

By RHONDA COOK

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The family of Vernon Forrest isn’t angry at the men who killed the boxing champ but they hope the ones who have eluded arrest will look “into their souls” and surrender to police.

Just hours after the second suspect in Forrest’s shooting death waived his first court appearance, Alphonso Forrest said the family would say little about the motives or the evidence until all the men are in custody.

Atlanta police are looking for a third man — the shooter — who police say was known to at least one of the two suspects in custody.

“I would love for that guy [the trigger man], if it’s possible, for him to look down in his soul and turn himself in and let justice be served,” said Alphonso Forrest, one of Vernon Forrest’s older siblings. “This family is in turmoil, worrying about him hurting somebody else. He should turn himself in. I know he probably comes from a decent family.”

Alphonso Forrest, 43, said the focus of his remaining seven brothers and sisters was on their mother. “What we’re trying to do is pull together all our strength and resources [for] our mom so she can find some comfort. That’s her child. She has to grieve.”

Earlier, on Thursday morning, Jquante Crews waived a first-appearance hearing before a Fulton County judge.

Crews, 25, was arrested late Wednesday afternoon at the College Park home of his brother. He is the second to be charged in Forrest’s death.

The first man arrested, 20-year-old Damario Ware, and Crews are both charged with murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and gun offenses.

Neither Crews nor Ware are suspected of pulling the trigger but both are accused of being involved and police think they know the shooter.

A surveillance camera in the parking lot of a southwest Atlanta convenience store captured an image of Ware approaching Forrest as he was putting air in a rear tire of his Jaguar and trying to rob the boxer, police said. Crews, a resident of Dallas, is believed to be the driver of the Pontiac Grand Prix used as the get-a-way car.

“Innocent. Believe that,” Crews yelled at nearby reporters as he was being taken into Atlanta Police headquarters Wednesday evening.

Police said Forrest, 38, was armed at the time of the attempted robbery. He shot at Ware and chased him, and was walking back to his car when he exchanged words with another man, police said.

Forrest, realizing he had confronted the wrong person, turned away to leave. That is when he was shot in the back, police said.

That man is still at large.

Ware’s grandmother, who raised him, made a tearful apology to the Forrest family when she stopped to talk to reporters after a court appearance.

But Alphonso Forrest said his mother and his siblings don’t blame her.

“My mom is a Christian lady,” Alphonso Forrest said in an interview Thursday. “She holds no anger or hatred toward that boy’s mom or grandmother. She said she’d keep praying ... that these guys do the right thing. We’re not angry. We’ve got God on our side.”

Staff writer Marcus Garner contributed to this story.