After two days of anguish, the family of Olympic boxer
Rhoshii Wells received a welcome phone call from
authorities.

The suspect in the 31-year-old's slaying had been arrested.
We jumped around here like it was Christmas morning,"
Wells' father, Frederick, said Thursday from his home in
North Las Vegas. "You want to see that person eye to eye."

Arizona troopers pulled Roger Randolph over on U.S.
Highway 93 about 15 miles north of Kingman, Ariz., late
Wednesday and arrested the 26-year-old on a fugitive
warrant in connection with Monday's deadly shooting.

During an interview at the Mohave County jail, Randolph
claimed Thursday that he shot Wells in self-defense after
the bronze medalist boxer punched him in the eye and
robbed him of $100. Randolph said that after the alleged
robbery, he drove to the Fremont Street Experience "to go
have fun and take it off my mind."

Randolph later returned to the apartment complex at 531 N.
Nellis Blvd., near Bonanza Road, pulled a rifle from his
vehicle and fired three rounds, cocking the weapon while
walking toward Wells, according to a Las Vegas police
report. Wells was struck once in the hip.

A witness told Las Vegas police that Wells and Randolph
were arguing over comments regarding a woman, according
to the arrest report. The report did not elaborate on that
argument, but it noted that Randolph told Wells: "I'll show
you (expletive), I'll come back and bury you!"

Seven minutes later, the suspect returned in a vehicle and
began firing at Wells, the witness told police.

Randolph disputed portions of that account and said Wells
had a reputation for being violent.

"It wasn't over no damned woman," he said.

"I figure it was self-defense because he took my money and
punched me," Randolph said. "He was a boxer."

Randolph said he could not recall how much time elapsed
between the first altercation with Wells and the shooting, but
he said Wells approached him, threatening to kill him.

"I put the gun on him. I told him 'Are you for real,' "
Randolph said in the jail interview.

"I fired like three times, three times, three times. He got hit
the third time."

Randolph's description of Wells' demeanor is in stark
contrast to that given by his friends and family, who said he
was a mild-mannered father of five battling to reignite his
boxing career.

Frederick Wells said his son was training hard for a
comeback. Rhoshii Wells' last professional fight was in
2005, and he referred to himself as "the forgotten
Olympian," his father said.

Terrance Cauthen, who represented the United States
alongside Wells in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, agreed with
Wells' father.

"He had a great record and was a great fighter," Cauthen,
also a bronze medalist, said from his New Jersey home. "He
was going to come back and do what he needed to do."

Fellow fighters said that even when Wells' career began to
fade, his professional record was 18-2 with 10 knockouts,
he remained supportive of his Olympic teammates. Cauthen
said he last spoke with Wells in July before one of his own
fights.

"He (Wells) said, 'You are going to box and mess up this
guy,' " Cauthen said. "He called it, because I boxed and
messed up that guy."

Wells' death has devastated his tight-knit, religious family.

"There is no appetite, and I like to eat," Wells' mother,
Linda, said from her North Las Vegas home. "There's no
sleep, and I'm usually in bed by 10 p.m."

As she spoke, Wells' 4-year-old son, Prince, who was with
him during the shooting, raced around the living room. The
boy's mother, Shamecca Flores, said that after the gunfire,
Prince ran to Wells' girlfriend's apartment and screamed
that his father had been shot. Prince ran back to his dad
and sprawled out on top of him.

"He was trying to wake him up," she said, adding that Prince
and his father loved playing video games together.

Flores hasn't summoned up the courage to tell the couple's
9-year-old daughter, Imani, who is visiting New York, that
her father is dead.

"I still can't believe it," the 28-year-old said of her
ex-husband, her voice breaking through tears. "I don't know
how I'm going to break it to her."

Frederick Wells said the last time he saw his son was
Sunday afternoon when Rhoshii Wells visited his parents'
home and discussed how he could escape the dangerous
neighborhood where he lived.

"He said, 'Daddy, I need to get away from this environment,'
" said Frederick Wells, who was working to rent his son a
casita across the street. "It was too late. The next day, he
was gone."

The family reminisced about how their son fell in love with
boxing after watching "Rocky" when he was 5 years old. His
mother encouraged him to take up other sports, like
baseball or basketball. But in his first boxing competition as
an amateur, at age 11, he beat the defending champion.

Next was the Junior Olympics, the Nationals and finally the
Olympics.

"There are no words for that incredible experience,"
Frederick Wells said, shaking his head and fading off as
though the memory brought him back to the exact moment
his son fought for a medal.

In the late 1990s, the family moved to Las Vegas, "the
boxing capital of the world," Frederick Wells said. Boxing
champ Evander Holyfield, who helped fund Rhoshii Wells'
training and traveling expenses leading up the Olympics,
gave the family $10,000 to help them move.

Because of recent financial troubles, Wells moved in with his
girlfriend and her mother in an apartment on Nellis, near the
slaying location. The move put him in the same
neighborhood as Randolph, who lived on Sherill Avenue
several blocks away.

Detectives searched the house on Sherill and the area
around the house and found a semi-automatic rifle loaded
with the same type of ammunition as that found at the crime
scene.

Randolph is to appear at an extradition hearing this morning
in Kingman.
Linda Wells, mother of slain boxer
Rhoshii Wells, is comforted Thursday
at her North Las Vegas home by friend
Orzarene Christian.
Photo by John Locher
Shamecca Flores holds her 4-year-old
son, Prince, on Thursday at the North
Las Vegas home of the parents of
Olympic boxer Rhoshii Wells. Wells,
Prince's father, was killed Monday
afternoon in northeast Las Vegas, and
a suspect was arrested late
Wednesday in Arizona.
Photo by John Locher
SLAIN FORMER OLYMPIAN: Arrest relieves boxer's family

Suspect argues incident was self-defense
By ADRIENNE PACKER and DAVE HAWKINS