Bodyguard for Floyd Mayweather shot in Atlanta

[April 10, 2018]    By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - A bodyguard for Floyd Mayweather was wounded when a gunman in a vehicle opened fire on the boxing great's motorcade as it was traveling through an Atlanta intersection early on Monday, police said.

Mayweather was not in the vehicle that was fired upon and was not injured in the incident, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department said.

Mayweather's bodyguard Gregory LaRosa, who was shot in the leg, was released from hospital three hours after the shooting.

Mayweather's entourage attended a night club earlier in the evening and were in three SUVs after leaving a diner at 2 a.m.

A vehicle pulled up to the SUVs in an intersection and a gunman inside opened fire, striking LaRosa in the lower leg. The driver of the vehicle LaRosa was in drove immediately to a hospital, Atlanta Police Department spokesman Donald Hannah told a news conference.

Police believe the shooter was familiar with the entourage or the group of vehicles. Police are not sure if anything happened earlier in the evening that led to the shooting.

Mayweather was in Atlanta to promote a boxing event in Las Vegas on Saturday night, ESPN reported.

Mayweather has said he has retired. The 41-year-old boxer beat mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor to send his record to a 50-0 in August.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Michael Perry)

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