A real shame. Ironically, he was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, which Yogi and I were discussing just the other day.

A Dispute, Shots and the Death of a Young Boxer

By CHRISTINE HAUSER and SHARON OTTERMAN (The New York Times).

The sidewalk shrine to the murder victim that kept growing outside a small market in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon had the familiar offerings: dozens of candles and scribbled tributes from grieving friends. But taped to a wall were newspaper stories and photographs that depicted what the young victim had accomplished inside a boxing ring and hints of what might have been.

Shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, the boxer, Ronney Vargas, who was 20, was shot in the torso while sitting in a car after he and some friends got into a dispute with strangers at a bodega on Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, the police said.

As an amateur, Mr. Vargas had won the Golden Gloves junior middleweight title in 2005, 2006 and 2007 before turning professional in September, winning all of his eight pro fights, six of them by knockouts.

He last fought about two weeks ago in North Bergen, N.J., where he knocked out his opponent in the third round, said his manager, Pat Lynch, in a telephone interview from St. Petersburg, Fla. “He had all the tools to be a real good fighter,” he said.

Most of Mr. Vargas’s pro fights were preliminary bouts, coming on cards with more established fighters, and at least one was in Madison Square Garden.

He showed promise as a boxer early on and started training when he was 8 or 9, said one of his brothers, Ronald Vargas, 24, who added that Ronney had dropped out of high school to pursue boxing.

Ronney Vargas’s day revolved around being fit for the ring, his brother said, and he would train in the gym at the Police Athletic League on Longwood Avenue in the Bronx until 7 or 8 p.m.

“He was already special,” Ronald Vargas said. “He had the moves, he had everything. All his life he dreamed of being a champion.”

Early Saturday morning, Ronney Vargas, who lived on East 151st Street, went to the bodega at Clinton Avenue and 179th Street with five friends. They got into an argument with a group of two men and two women they did not know, the police said.

His brother said he had been told by several of the friends who were with Ronney that the dispute started because the women were flirting with Mr. Vargas, who was sitting in a Honda outside the store.

When Mr. Vargas drove off with his friends, the other group followed them in a light-colored automobile and cut them off at Hughes Avenue and East 178th Street, blocking Mr. Vargas’s car, the police said.

One of the men in the pursuing group got out of the car with a gun, pistol-whipped Mr. Vargas in the driver’s seat, and then shot him, the police said. Mr. Vargas drove in reverse, sideswiping other cars before getting out and collapsing on the street, the police said. He was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.

As news of the shooting spread, Mr. Vargas’s family and neighbors gathered outside the Broadway Mini Market on West 152nd Street, one of his favorite neighborhood hangouts, where the memorial began to grow.

Mr. Vargas lived with his father, German Vargas, 52, and two brothers, Ronald, and Ronniel, 15, in a two-bedroom apartment in the South Bronx.

“He lost his life for nothing,” his father said during an interview in the family’s living room, which was filled with boxing trophies. Sets of Golden Gloves were hanging on the walls, which were also adorned with medals.

“He was learning how to live his life,” his father added. “They did not just kill a boxer, they killed a champion.”

Ronald Vargas said that he had just surprised Ronney Vargas with a new sound system for his car and that Ronney went out early Saturday to show it to friends. “I told him be safe,” Ronald Vargas said. “It was stupid girl stuff.”

Mr. Lynch, the boxer’s manager, said he last spoke with him about two days ago, talking about his training and the possibility of his fighting sooner than his next scheduled match in October in Atlantic City.

The police said on Saturday afternoon that they were speaking with the friends who were with Mr. Vargas when he was killed, but they had not announced any arrests.

One friend, Ralphie Vasquez, was in the passenger seat when Mr. Vargas was shot. Mr. Vasquez’s cousin Jay Colon, 24, said Mr. Vasquez told him what had happened.

Mr. Vasquez held Mr. Vargas outside the vehicle after he was shot, his cousin said.

“I think I got hit because I can’t breathe no more,” Mr. Vargas told Mr. Vasquez, according to Mr. Colon.