Joseph Parkers trainer Kevin Barry suffers loss from the Las Vegas tragedy

Publish Date
Tuesday, 3 October 2017, 3:00PM
Photo / Getty Images

Photo / Getty Images

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 Joseph Parker, the WBO world champion, has lived with his family in Las Vegas for 14 years.

23-0 REIGNING WBO WORLD CHAMPION #TEAMPARKER

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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.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

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