by Alex Dominguez, Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) - An employee of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman and the daughter of a minister were found shot to death Thursday in a car registered to the boxer, police said.
The man and woman were identified as Oliver L. McCaffity, 29, and Lisa R. Brown, 28. They were found at about 2 a.m. in Rahman’s wrecked 1999 Infiniti in an alley in the city’s Park Heights area.
Investigators said they don’t believe Rahman was involved in the shootings.
Sgt. Kevin Daniels, a police spokesman, said investigators “have no known suspects or motives.”
McCaffity had a criminal record, including charges of conspiracy to distrbute cocaine in June 2000. Last month, he was sentenced to three years’ probation on those charges.
Brown’s father, the Rev. Milton E. Williams, pastor of New Life Evangelical Baptist Church in East Baltimore, remembered his daughter as an energetic mother of three, The (Baltimore) Sun reported. Her daughters are 9 and 7, and her son is 3.
Brown had been dating McCaffity but recently separated, her father said. The two decided to go to a movie Wednesday night, hours before they were killed.
Rahman held a five-minute news conference, where he told reporters McCaffity was an employee who was working with him to open a clothing store in downtown Baltimore.
“We’re here today because of a tragedy ... It’s a sad day for me and my family, and for the victim’s family. I want to set the record straight. I don’t think the attention should be here,” Rahman said.
The employee had been using the car to make daily stock runs between Baltimore, Upper Marlboro and Virginia, and often used the car at night, Rahman said.
“For me, it’s promotional. You know, you see a guy in a nice car, and in nice clothes, and you listen to him,” Rahman said.
Police received a call for a car accident about 2:10 a.m. When officers arrived, they found McCaffity and Brown dead in the 1999 Infiniti with gunshot wounds to the head, said police spokeswoman Ragina Averella.
Rahman spokesman Shawn Caesar said several of Rahman’s employees use his vehicles.
“It’s not unusual for Hasim to loan one of his vehicles out employees. There are three or four being borrowed right now, this is one of the cars that was borrowed,” Caesar said. “So, it was his vehicle, he did know the person in the car, he does not know any of the circumstances around the murder.”
Relatives of McCaffity remembered him as a “good kid” who grew up in West Baltimore who loved his 12-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. McCaffity graduated from Forest Park High School in the early 1990s.
Rahman, who won the title in April by knocking out Lennox Lewis and lost the belt when Lewis knocked him out in November, seemed annoyed when asked if McCaffity had a criminal record.
“I’m not going to go into his history. We should let him rest in peace. This man was murdered. We should find out who did this,” Rahman said.
Rahman said McCaffity had used the car, and others, for two to three months.
“I liked him. He was a good associate of mine,” Rahman said. “I’m mourning his death.”