Boxer killed in DC mentored others and had promising career ahead, father says –

A man shot to death in a parking garage in Northwest D.C. early Sunday was an up-and-coming professional boxer who enjoyed mentoring younger boxers, his father told News4.

“He’s just so affectionate and he cared about them,” said Anwar Wingate’s father, Rafael Board. “It was just natural.”

Someone shot Wingate, 24, in a parking garage in the 2100 block of 8^th Street NW, police said. They’re still looking for the shooter and investigating the motive.

Board wishes his son would have stayed home that night.

“I love my son to death, but he made a bad choice,” he said. “He went to a place where he shouldn’t have been.”

Board also coached his son.

“It meant a lot to him because I think it meant a lot to me, too,” he said. “And he understood that it was a way out of, a way out from everything else.”

Wingate spent a lot of his time training at the Kenilworth Recreation Center, and his discipline in the ring was paying off. He was 2-0 as a professional with a third fight just a few weeks away.

His father said he was on his way to big things.

“I don’t think it’s set in all the way that I’m not going to see him again,” Board said. “Even though I understand it, I don’t think it’s set in all the way yet.

“I’m gonna miss my son,” he said.

Board said he’ll honor his son’s legacy by continuing to train the next generation of boxers.

The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this case.