FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida family said a man who was killed earlier this month inside a parking garage in Fort Lauderdale was defending a woman when he was attacked.
"While defending a woman, he stepped in and in turn was jumped and stabbed," Peter Bombardiere's cousin, Victoria Domenech, said in an email to Local10.com. "He was trying to help this girl because he is a dad now. He had a daughter. He couldn't bear to see that girl get hurt."
Recommended Videos
Fort Lauderdale police said the stabbing was reported at 4:10 a.m. Oct. 14 in the Governmental Center parking garage at 151 SW Second St.
Bombardiere, 24, of Boca Raton, was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died.
Further details about the attack were not immediately released by police.
Domenech said she will always remember her cousin as a hero and "the color in a room of black of white."
"He was the first one to say hello. He would goof around all day and laugh at everyone's jokes, even if they were horrible. He was our 24-year-old little cousin, even though he was the oldest. Until it came around to the real things, like protecting us, making sure we were OK and loving us," Domenech said.
Domenech said Bombardiere did not "live the way that he died," and always kept his childhood innocence although having to grow up in many ways when he became a father.
"He was, and always will be my hero," Domenech said. "He was killed in the act of defending someone. In the act of being who and what he always was -- our hero."
Bombardiere, who his family said loved hockey and video games, was laid to rest on Thursday.
"Last night, I said my last goodbyes to my ridiculous, hilarious, loving, wonderful cousin," Domenech said on Friday. "And it was horrible for a million reasons, but the worst was that while my family held him and cried, he was not smiling.
"And that was the oddest part of it all for me. He was not telling them it would all be OK and to not worry with his big, Petey smile."
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call Sgt. Steve Novak at 954-828-5534 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.