Floyd Mayweather's bodyguard shot outside ritzy Atlanta hotel, police say

0 0 Julius Choudhury April 10, 2018 Edit this post

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

A bodyguard for boxing champ Floyd Mayweather is recovering at an Atlanta hospital after being shot in the leg outside a hotel early Monday, police said.

It doesn't appear to be a random incident. Investigators say there are indications "the shooter was targeting the victim's vehicle," according to an Atlanta Police Department news release.

The bodyguard was in a convoy of three cars that was traveling to a hotel in the city's tony Buckhead neighborhood just after 3 a.m. ET, said Officer Lisa Bender, APD spokeswoman.

"We believe that Mr. Mayweather may have been in one of the other vehicles in the caravan and was not injured," an APD news release said.

Mayweather's camp did not immediately return CNN's call seeking comment.

The bodyguard has not been identified. He is in stable condition at Grady Hospital downtown, Bender said.

The vehicles left a club and were en route to the InterContinental when a vehicle pulled alongside the motorcade at an intersection and opened fire on one of the vehicles, Bender said. The intersection is along a strip of Peachtree Road replete with restaurants, shopping malls, high-end boutiques and upscale hotels.

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The drivers of the three vehicles fled, and the shooter's vehicle followed, she said. After losing the shooter's vehicle, the driver carrying the bodyguard rerouted to Grady, where the bodyguard received treatment for a gunshot wound to the leg, Bender said.

Mayweather and his entourage had spent at least part of the night at a club not far from Buckhead. Both Mayweather's and the club's social media accounts promoted his appearance there earlier Sunday.

The club also posted video of Mayweather enjoying music in the packed club as other patrons threw what appeared to be money into the air. At one point, a tub of champagne bottles adorned with sparklers was paraded through the club.

Known for his hard-partying ways, Mayweather has largely remained out of the spotlight since his cross-discipline fight with mixed martial artist Conor McGregor in August, which Mayweather won by technical knockout.

McGregor, 'born with clenched fists'

Coincidentally, McGregor returned to the spotlight three days earlier. Ahead of a Saturday slate of fights in which McGregor would be stripped of his lightweight UFC title for failing to defend it, McGregor and about 20 others entered the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and attacked a bus carrying UFC fighters, according to police. McGregor also stands accused of punching a security guard during the Thursday incident.

McGregor faces several charges, including two counts of felony criminal mischief, and was released on a $50,000 bond.

CNN's Tina Burnside contributed to this report.