What start­ed off as a fend­er ben­der turned in­to a fa­tal at­tack af­ter a me­chan­ic was beat­en and stabbed to death by a group of Span­ish-speak­ing men short­ly af­ter mid­night yes­ter­day.

Col­in Forbes, 42, a fa­ther of four of In­di­an Walk, Moru­ga, died at around 1.30 am at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, around 12.10 am, Forbes was re­vers­ing his car from the com­pound of the Big Ben Bar at Pe­nal Rock Road when it came in­to con­tact with a red ve­hi­cle. This led to an ar­gu­ment be­tween him and a group of Span­ish-speak­ing men who then be­gan throw­ing glass bot­tles at him. Po­lice said the group of men then stabbed Forbes sev­er­al times and es­caped in the red car.

Sad­dened over his death, Stan­ley Nab­by, who lives a few hous­es away from Forbes, said he (Forbes) worked in his son’s garage.

He ex­plained that Forbes had gone with a friend to check a car and when they were re­turn­ing home, Forbes met an­oth­er friend and they de­cid­ed to stop at the bar for drinks.

Forbes left them and re­turned to the car.

“I un­der­stand that the car he was dri­ving—the Lancer—it rolled back and touched some Venezue­lan res­i­dents’ car. They took the keys from him. They beat him.”

But, when Forbes called the po­lice, the sus­pects be­came more en­raged.

“That es­ca­lat­ed the whole thing. They start­ed to beat him more. He ran away from them and they con­tin­ued to beat him and stab him.”

Nab­by was told that Forbes even of­fered to fix the sus­pects’ car.

“If it had been Trinida­di­ans that did that, it would not be right... But these Venezue­lan na­tion­als, they took ad­van­tage of the whole sit­u­a­tion. The guy who was with him (Forbes) said that he (Forbes) told them that he would fix their car be­cause he works in a garage. All they had to do was bring the car around. But they took his stuff and beat him.”

Nab­by said he re­mains dis­tressed and hurt over Forbes’ death.

He said Forbes had a crim­i­nal past but al­most four years ago, turned his life around.

“He said that he did not want to con­tin­ue that life of crime. He would come here ear­ly on morn­ings and do what he has to do. He made the ef­fort. He was on bail and he was try­ing to keep away from crime,” said Nab­by, a for­mer school prin­ci­pal.

Nab­by said Forbes will be missed by the com­mu­ni­ty, as he of­ten spoke to youths in the area about turn­ing away from crime. Forbes had ob­tained cer­tifi­cates in cab­i­net mak­ing and au­to me­chan­ics while he was re­mand­ed at the prison.

Con­cerned over the crime sit­u­a­tion, Nab­by said it is caus­ing com­plete may­hem and urged the au­thor­i­ties to not on­ly be re­ac­tive, but proac­tive.

In times of con­flict, he had this mes­sage for peo­ple was, “Walk away and leave it alone. It is not safe to go out. It is not safe to go out in bars and so on. Just leave it. You will get back what you lose.”

Mean­while, Forbes’ sis­ter-in-law, La Toya, said he was un­armed and would not have es­ca­lat­ed the sit­u­a­tion.

“He had no knife, stick, noth­ing. He had in his hands a key, cell phone and dri­ver’s per­mit. They were tak­en by the as­sailants. I am not sure why they were tak­en. That is quite con­fus­ing. They got back the phone and the keys. But we were not able to get back his dri­ver’s per­mit.”

La Toya said Forbes was help­ful and did not hold a grudge against any­one. He had three chil­dren, ages 14, 10 and 8, as well as a step­daugh­ter, aged 11.

Lament­ing that the fam­i­ly is still in shock, she was not con­fi­dent that they would get jus­tice.

She added that Forbes will be missed by his chil­dren, nieces and nephews even more dur­ing the com­ing Christ­mas sea­son, as he usu­al­ly took them to Christ­mas events.

Of­fi­cers from the Pe­nal Po­lice Sta­tion and the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions vis­it­ed the scene.

Last week, Pleas­antville fa­ther of four Jamie Walk­er was shot dead by an off-du­ty po­lice of­fi­cer dur­ing an ar­gu­ment over a park­ing spot at Co­coyea Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.

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Dr. Natalia Kanem Executive Director, UNFPA

Dr. Natalia Kanem Executive Director, UNFPA

Swami Prakashananda laddles dosa batter onto a tawa at Chinmaya Mission.

Swami Prakashananda laddles dosa batter onto a tawa at Chinmaya Mission.

Aurora Noguera-Ramkissoon and Natalia Kanem at UN Office, T&T.

Aurora Noguera-Ramkissoon and Natalia Kanem at UN Office, T&T.

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