MMA death

[GeneChing]

MMA Fighter Commits Suicide After Murdering Girlfriend
Tragedy strikes the MMA world......
By Tim Bragg / The Fresno Bee
11/09/07 09:23:26

PORTERVILLE -- Police SWAT officers who surrounded a homicide suspect as he sat in a car near a Porterville high school Thursday morning discovered he had shot himself.

The man's mother and brother were arrested by police after officers learned they had allegedly assisted the man in avoiding arrest.

Detectives believe 29-year-old Porterville resident Bobby Joe Suggs is responsible for the Wednesday murder of Amber Nicole Zavala, 23, who was found dead at her apartment on the 300 block of North Capitola Court, said Porterville police Lt. Chris Dempsie.

Police learned of Zavala's killing Wednesday, after people called police to report that Suggs had been talking about murdering someone, Dempsie said. Zavala's body was discovered about 5 p.m. Wednesday. Although an exact cause of death hasn't been determined, trauma to the body indicated she may have been strangled, Dempsie said.

Officers tried calling Suggs on his cell phone throughout the night Wednesday but didn't get a response.

They learned at 8 a.m. Thursday that Suggs was hiding near an orange orchard on the side of a hill near the intersection of Hillcrest Street and Morton Avenue, just north of Granite Hills High School, Dempsie said.

"We got a call that he was hiding near the orange orchard and making suicidal statements," he said.

Granite Hills High School was placed on lockdown for about four hours Thursday as police SWAT officers surrounded the car Suggs was in. A helicopter from the Kern County Sheriff's Department was called in to try to observe Suggs, but the pilots didn't see any movement, Dempsie said.

SWAT officers approached the car and found Suggs inside, dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, Dempsie said.

Officers don't know exactly when Suggs shot himself, but he said others had contact with him up until about 8 a.m. by phone.

Dempsie said Suggs and Zavala had a romantic relationship, but he wasn't sure of the extent of that relationship and whether they were still together at the time of the killing.

Joe Iness, who lives in the same apartment complex as Zavala, said neighbors didn't hear or see anything suspicious Wednesday.

But others who lived in the complex said they had heard Zavala arguing loudly with a man they believed to be Suggs.

Dempsie said they are investigating the relationship between Suggs and Zavala, along with information that Suggs fought professionally in mixed martial arts at a local casino. He said officials may run toxicological tests on Suggs' body.

Police also arrested Suggs' mother, 48-year-old Patsy Suggs, and his brother, 32-year-old Jesse Suggs, on charges of helping Suggs evade arrest after learning they were aware of the killing and provided Bobby Joe Suggs with transportation, Dempsie said. Both were booked into the Tulare County Jail.

He said the two allegedly knew about Zavala's death for at least four hours without reporting it to police. They also gave Suggs a car to drive because police were looking for his, Dempsie said.

Bobby Joe Sugg's Sherdog profile is available here.

[MasterKiller]

Talk about misleading titles...

[GeneChing]

...not misleading. Why would I mislead?

I build my threads to last. This way, we can put all sorts of stuff here later. That's assuming that it doesn't get locked down because it turned into another ****ing match by our ever-present flamers...

[SifuAbel]

You rang?

[Vash]

I will personally pistol-whip the next individual that commits shenanigans in this thread.

I'd be interested to see if the fighter in question was prone to violent, anti-social acts, as well as any corresponding drug and/or alcohol problems.

[Mr Punch]

I think he killed himself because he couldn't handle having beaten up on the old Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman.

[1bad65]

I agree with MK. Misleading title. Especially now because a fighter named Sammy Vasquez is still in the hospital over head injuries sustained in a bout here in Texas a few weeks ago. I actually saw the title and thought he had died.

You can read about Sammy at txmma.com btw.

[GeneChing]

...but then I thought that there probably wouldn't be much more to add to this thread once this news has faded. At least, I hope there aren't more. So I chose a more open ended title. Don't get me wrong, I not hoping for a death in the ring at all. There are a lot of ways death and MMA can interact. We'll see if there's more to add to this thread later on.

[MasterKiller]

Originally Posted by GeneChing

...but then I thought that there probably wouldn't be much more to add to this thread once this news has faded. At least, I hope there aren't more. So I chose a more open ended title. Don't get me wrong, I not hoping for a death in the ring at all. There are a lot of ways death and MMA can interact. We'll see if there's more to add to this thread later on.

You should have called it "The thread about every criminal in America that also happens to train MMA."

[1bad65]

Bobby Hoffman would be the poster child for that.

[stricker]

I'm being open ended...

the way you havent expressed any sadness at what is nothing but a human tragedy says to me means you must have other intentions, so open ended isnt actually so open ended...

what the **** does it matter that the guy also fought mma?

i cant see anything in this thread but sensationalism. putting mma and death in the same sentence... there's a lotta ways ANYTHING and death can interact, and a lotta ways mma can interact with anything.

media exploitation.

disgraceful IMO.


i dont always believe it, but there's a saying if you aint part of the solution youre part of the problem. what are you?

[1bad65]

Originally Posted by stricker

what the **** does it matter that the guy also fought mma?

I agree 100% Stricker. Look at the 'Busted Instructors' thread. It's not just MMA. And I still say the thread title is totally misleading and not appropriate for this situation.

[Water Dragon]

So what type of conversation does this generate? A MMA fighter killed his girl and shot himself. So have a whole lot of other people. Police, businessmen, retired people, OJ. I don't think this guy training MMA makes this a martial arts related thread. This is a thread about crazy muth****as that commit murder-suicides. Therefore, this thread belongs on tha main board with the rest of the off topic stuff. I demand the moderators move this thread and ban Gene Ching for making off topic posts!

[doug maverick]

we got a gene hatre in our midst. alot of them popping up lately whats up with that!

[Shaolin Wookie]

Originally Posted by Water Dragon

So what type of conversation does this generate? A MMA fighter killed his girl and shot himself. So have a whole lot of other people. Police, businessmen, retired people, OJ. I don't think this guy training MMA makes this a martial arts related thread. This is a thread about crazy muth****as that commit murder-suicides. Therefore, this thread belongs on tha main board with the rest of the off topic stuff. I demand the moderators move this thread and ban Gene Ching for making off topic posts!

I disagree, in part. MMA doesn't necessarily teach self-control. I know, it does in some ways: IE, when you've got someone in a potentially crippling hold, it's self-control that keeps you from snapping a neck. But if you have a lot of aggression and a certain degenrate psychological bent, MMA could be as damaging as torturing small animals.

I do agree with you that MMA isn't the cause, however.