Najai “Nitro” Turpin, 23, “Contender” boxer, a suicide
Posted: Saturday, February 26th, 2005 7:23 amThe parallel wasn’t lost on anyone: the kid was Rocky. Najai (Nitro) Turpin, 23, was one of 16 boxers chosen for The Contender, an NBC reality show featuring Sylvester Stallone as a co-host. …
Then he went back to the ghetto to be near his girlfriend, Angela Chapple, and their daughter Anje, 2, to await the show’s airing. But three weeks before his prime-time debut, on the morning of Valentine’s Day, Turpin parked his car near Chapple’s house and shot a bullet into his head.
Was Turpin killed by reality TV? Friends, family and police saw little evidence of that. … Turpin left no note.
Whatever the reason, Turpin’s suicide morbidly underscored the way NBC had been promoting The Contender … as a reality series with high emotional stakes. … Read full obituary
