Surveillance video has emerged showing a mysterious figure exiting the ambulette parked in a remote area of the Bronx before the driver, groundbreaking musician Peter Forrest of 24-7 Spyz, was found beaten to death in the back.
News12 The Bronx obtained footage showing the large white vehicle Forrest, 64, drove for Marquis Ambulette slowly pulling to a stop at the corner of Castle Hill Ave. and Hart St. along the edge of Westchester Creek and Castle Hill Park about 9:00 a.m. Monday.
About a half-hour later, a man exits the driver’s side of the ambulette and enters a waiting car, which News12 says a woman was in.
The video then shows another ambulette pulling up next to Forrest’s by 10:00 a.m. A coworker worried after Forrest missed scheduled pick ups had tracked the GPS in Forrest’s vehicle and discovered the victim, according to police sources.
The front-door window had been broken and Forrest was lying face down in the back in a pool of blood, cops said. According to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Forrest was beaten to death, suffering blunt impact injuries of head and torso.
Peter Forrest, 64, was known as P. Fluid when he sang in the original lineup of 24-7 Spyz, a South Bronx-based band that mixed metal, hardcore, punk and funk and opened for Jane’s Addiction on their Ritual de lo Habitual tour starting in 1990.
“Music was his life and advancing Black rock was his life,” Chiedza Makonnen, Forrest’s longtime ex-girlfriend, who used to be known as Charmelle Dukes, told the Daily News Tuesday.
“He was passionate about that. He really helped pave that road for a lot of people to understand that Black musicians aren’t just rappers or R&B or soul, we’re rockers too.”
Makonnen was shocked by Forrest’s murder and heartbroken to learn of the details.
“He didn’t deserve that,” Makonnen said. “He is the last person you would think would pass like that. He just wasn’t involved in stuff.”
Forrest was last heard from by colleagues at the Long Island-based ambulette company about 8 a.m. Monday. When he failed afterward to make a few pickups and stopped answering his phone they became concerned.
“We are cooperating and it’s a terrible tragedy for the family and [our] hearts are going out to his family,” said the colleague, who did not want to share his name, who found the victim dead.
It is unclear whether Forrest was still behind the wheel when the ambulette drove up and parked in Castle Hill.
There have been no arrests.
With Thomas Tracy and Nicholas Williams