Ex-Boxer Dies Protecting His 15-Year-Old Daughter

A Chicago man with a history of trouble with the law is charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly punching and killing an ex-boxer who was trying to protect his teen-aged daughter.

Michael Tingling, 59, of the Rogers Park community, died Wednesday afternoon. Police say Joseph Firek, 59, made obscene gestures towards the 15-year-old girl before the fight started.

Tingling picked up his daughter, Mashara, from school at Chicago Math and Science Academy. Father and daughter were on their way to get a doughnut before going to a doctor's appointment.

Firek walked up and brushed against the child, police told the Chicago Tribune.

“(He) stared at them, looked at her up and down, and her dad grabbed her, put her behind him and he told him, 'You need to walk away,'” Mashara's mother Yolanda Simmons said. “The guy was just standing there grinning.”

Firek then shoved and punched Tingling in the chest and yelled racial epithets as he kept up his attack, police said. Tingling had a pacemaker.

The daughter called 911. The two walked to a nearby shop with Firek following them, according to prosecutors. Eventually, he stopped following them.

Tingling was very popular in his North Side neighborhood and known as a devoted father.