Young man stabbed to death after failing to heed mother’s warning

Sandra Gibbons will remember her birthday on Monday for all the wrong reasons. It was the day her son, Che Gibbons, was fatally stabbed at an establishment she had repeatedly warned him to stay away from.

Police said they found the 29-year-old’s motionless body with several wounds when they responded to reports of a stabbing around 8:40 p.m. at Lascelles Terrace, Pinelands, St Michael. As of Tuesday, a man was in custody assisting with the police investigation.

A few metres from the scene of the crime, Gibbons sat in the verandah of her home, a stone’s throw away from the residence of the alleged perpetrator.

She admitted she was not surprised at where her son had lost his life, four days before he turned 30.

“I warned him about the environment and the company he kept,” said the grieving mother, who disclosed that her son was unemployed and had not worked for some time since a short stint in the hospitality sector.

“A set of people who aren’t working hanging out there every day, I didn’t like it. I thought that he should have been trying to do something more productive with his time.”

In fact, she said since February, Che, who also leaves to mourn a 12-year-old sister, had an opportunity to leave Barbados, as his father had arranged for him to work in North America.

However, she said, he repeatedly put off the move.

“He had the potential to do something with his life…. It wasn’t like he had no hope or couldn’t get a job,” she lamented.

Throughout the community, the former Christ Church Foundation School student was remembered as an intelligent young man who was destined for greatness before being led astray by bad company.

“He wasn’t no duncy fellow nor anything like that, and it wasn’t just that he went to Foundation, he was bright too,” one member of the community told Barbados TODAY.

Residents recalled that before Monday night’s stabbing, Che was involved in a loud argument with another man.

“I passed him last night before he died. He was quarrelling with the same fellow who [is alleged to have] killed him but I can’t tell you what they were quarrelling about because I don’t link with that crew,” one person told Barbados TODAY. “I just went inside because it is a regular thing to hear them quarrelling because that is the ‘hot spot’. I just walked inside, turned on my TV and in 20 minutes he was dead.”

Gibbons also recalled hearing the commotion but said she “didn’t think anything of it”.

“I looked out and saw that whatever was happening, the police needed to be called in,” she said.

When Barbados TODAY visited the establishment where the tragedy occurred, a man informed that the owner was still at the police station speaking with lawmen.

Meantime, one resident in his 40s expressed concern that some of the young men in the community were falling prey to drugs, which he believes is contributing to deviant behaviour.

“The drug use, the cocaine, it’s getting higher now with these recreational drugs…. It’s playing with their minds,” he said. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb