An emotional Chad Lefebvre had to see for himself today the spot where his friend died Saturday morning.
"That's where he died, right there," Lefebvre said as he pointed to a spot in the parking lot outside a Hawkesbury bar.
Lefebvre had known Danny Trineer since grade school, and helped him renovate his father's house in Grenville, Que. near Hawkesbury.
"Whenever I needed his help, he was always there for me," Lefebvre said. "I lost one of my best friends, just because of stupid people."
Stabbed in the parking lot
Trineer was at the Deja Vue Cafe Bar Friday night. He had worked as a bouncer here a year ago. Sous-chef John Champagne saw him that night -- in a good mood, showing people magic tricks.
"For him, he was having a good night and it ended up badly, you know," Champagne said.
Witnesses say Trineer and a man were trying to break up a fight between a female friend of his and another woman. The fight spilled out into the parking lot.
Trineer, witnesses say, was then attacked by another man, and stabbed in the chest and throat.
Dealing with the aftermath
He died that same night at the Hawkesbury Hospital. John Champagne had the horrible task the next day of cleaning the spot where Trineer had fallen.
"I knew Danny for many years," Champagne said. "I never knew I'd have to go through something like this, cleaning up such a horrific mess."
A short distance away that same night, police descended on a rowhouse in the neighbourhood.
They were after 26-year-old Rodney Wiss Cesar, a Haitian-born resident now living with a woman and a child -- Janice Leduc's grandson.
'He was a perfect stepfather'
"He was raising my grandson," Leduc said of Cesar. "He was a perfect stepfather for my grandson, never bothered nobody in the neighbourhood."
Police have charged Cesar with first-degree murder.
"I found out it was him, and I said no, I still can't believe it," Leduc added.
Lefebvre can't believe it either. A selfless decision to break up a fight -- that cost his friend his life.
"He's up with God now, looking over us."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
