10-03-2017, 07:25 PM
Friends of Kiwi Kevin Barry victims of Las Vegas gunman
Kevin Barry has spoken of his shock at the Las Vegas mass shooting which has affected family friends, several of whom have been shot.
New Zealander Barry, the trainer of Kiwi heavyweight boxer and WBO world champion Joseph Parker, has lived with his family in Las Vegas for 14 years.
Barry, a silver medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, told Radio Sport's Mark Watson that a friend of a friend of his son Taylor had been shot dead and that a good friend of his wife Tanya had been shot in the chest along with her daughter, who had been wounded in an arm.
"My immediate network is safe and sound but when you've got 59 people dead and 527 in hospital injured, you know that you're going to know some people and my wife woke up this morning with a lady friend of hers and her daughter ... were both shot last night - the mother in the chest and the daughter in the arm," Barry told Watson. "Both are alive but they've had a rough time."
Barry travelled back to Las Vegas immediately after Parker's recent victory over Hughie Fury in Manchester while 25-year-old Parker travelled home to Auckland for a break.
Parker lives with the Barrys in a gated suburban community in Las Vegas about 20 minutes' drive from The Strip where the shooting occurred.
Barry added: "It has touched us in a very real way. When you look at the people who have been injured in this catastrophic event, I think there are going to be a lot more people that we know once the names come out.
"I got up this morning and there were a lot of concerned messages from New Zealand and different parts of America. I turned the television on and sat there almost in shock. I sat there with a cup of coffee - I couldn't eat my breakfast. It made me sick. The last time I felt like that was in 9-11.
"It's times like this that you have to appreciate life and appreciate that everything can change very quickly."
The shooting happened at a concert near the Mandalay Bay Casino and Barry said he knew the area well.
"The Mandalay Bay and the Bellagio are my two favourite casinos here in Las Vegas," he said. "People may remember when David Tua fought Lennox Lewis back in November 2000, that it was at the Mandalay Bay. It has always been a casino that I have had fond memories of.
"I've walked up and down that area many times in the 14 years we've lived here."
Kevin Barry has spoken of his shock at the Las Vegas mass shooting which has affected family friends, several of whom have been shot.
New Zealander Barry, the trainer of Kiwi heavyweight boxer and WBO world champion Joseph Parker, has lived with his family in Las Vegas for 14 years.
Barry, a silver medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, told Radio Sport's Mark Watson that a friend of a friend of his son Taylor had been shot dead and that a good friend of his wife Tanya had been shot in the chest along with her daughter, who had been wounded in an arm.
"My immediate network is safe and sound but when you've got 59 people dead and 527 in hospital injured, you know that you're going to know some people and my wife woke up this morning with a lady friend of hers and her daughter ... were both shot last night - the mother in the chest and the daughter in the arm," Barry told Watson. "Both are alive but they've had a rough time."
Barry travelled back to Las Vegas immediately after Parker's recent victory over Hughie Fury in Manchester while 25-year-old Parker travelled home to Auckland for a break.
Parker lives with the Barrys in a gated suburban community in Las Vegas about 20 minutes' drive from The Strip where the shooting occurred.
Barry added: "It has touched us in a very real way. When you look at the people who have been injured in this catastrophic event, I think there are going to be a lot more people that we know once the names come out.
"I got up this morning and there were a lot of concerned messages from New Zealand and different parts of America. I turned the television on and sat there almost in shock. I sat there with a cup of coffee - I couldn't eat my breakfast. It made me sick. The last time I felt like that was in 9-11.
"It's times like this that you have to appreciate life and appreciate that everything can change very quickly."
The shooting happened at a concert near the Mandalay Bay Casino and Barry said he knew the area well.
"The Mandalay Bay and the Bellagio are my two favourite casinos here in Las Vegas," he said. "People may remember when David Tua fought Lennox Lewis back in November 2000, that it was at the Mandalay Bay. It has always been a casino that I have had fond memories of.
"I've walked up and down that area many times in the 14 years we've lived here."