The Lavia family of Sandy Bay will pass this Christmas mourning the loss of one of their family members who was brutally killed last weekend.{{more}}

Twenty-year-old Lisbon “Charba” Lavia will to be laid to rest today, Thursday, at the Spring Gospel Tabernacle in Biabou.

Lavia, a past student of the St Martin’s Secondary School, succumbed to multiple chop and stab wounds about his body after being involved in an altercation with a group of men at about 8:40 p.m on Sunday, December 19, at Heritage Square.

Four men are currently assisting police with their investigations into Lavia’s death.

Mother of the deceased, Joyce Lavia, said Christmas is not going to be the same without her son around.

“I really don’t want to think about it too much. I don’t want my pressure to go up,” a distraught Lavia said in a telephone interview.

Reminiscing about the time spent with her son before his death, Lavia told SEARCHLIGHT that Lisbon came to where she lives at Largo Height on Saturday to spend some time. “When he came Saturday night, he said “Mommy open the door” and I tell him to take off his shoes because the were dirty and smelly,” she said.

Lavia said on Sunday, her son left home and told her he was going to work.

That would be the last time she would see her son alive.

“He tell me he was going to work because he sells clothes with a woman. When I was on my bed, I get a phone call from my daughter telling me Lisbon dead. I just broke down in tears,” Lavia said.

“It done happen already and I can’t bring him back, but I really miss my son,” the mother of two said. Lavia, however, noted that she is drawing strength from the Lord to deal with her loss.

Meanwhile, Naomi Duncan, great aunt of Lisbon, who said he had lived with her for the past year and a half, is of the belief that Lisbon’s death is as a result of an altercation he had been involved in with some men at a football match at Argyle, some time ago.

“He was a cool young man and I never had any complaints about him,” Duncan noted.

Duncan said Lisbon left her home on Saturday, December 18, to go to his grandmother’s home in Spring, Biabou.

“Before he leave to go, he tell me to give him $6.00. And that was the last time I heard from him,” Duncan said.

A person who was present at Heritage Square during the altercation told SEARCHLIGHT that bottles were thrown in Lavia’s direction. “I see him run through Middle Street and then come back by the Heritage Square sign close to the main road,” the witness said.

The witness said when Lavia returned, a fight broke out and Lavia was chopped repeatedly about the body, especially his neck. “He try look for stone, but is real chop I see been blasting and nuff blood too,” the witness added.

The witness said that Lavia then ripped off his T-shirt in an attempt to stop the blood spouting from his neck. Lavia is said to have left the scene on his own, but subsequently succumbed to his injuries at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.