Christopher Reid (Photo Credit: Faith Bryen)

Faith Bryen says she thought Valentine’s Day was going to be a special day for her and Christopher Reid, her boyfriend of four years and the father of her two-year old son.

But on Friday, Feb. 4 when Reid went to spend the evening with a neighbor, Gurvus Nembhard, he did not come home.

“He had never gone out and not come home before,” said Bryen, 29.

Throughout the night and into the next morning, Bryen said she called Reid’s cell phone repeatedly. At about noon on Saturday, a woman answered Bryen’s phone. Bryen said she was taken aback to hear a woman’s voice on her boyfriend’s phone – but then the woman introduced herself as a detective and confirmed Bryen’s worst fear — Reid was dead.

Police say Nembhard, 50, stabbed Reid in the neck at 4:40 a.m. Saturday morning in the basement apartment of Nembhard’s Bronx home. Nembhard was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and the criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Reid was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. when he arrived at Jacobi Medical Center via ambulance.

The murder happened during a card game attended by four or five other men, said police, who did not disclose the witnesses’ names.

A relative of Nembhard who did not want her name used but who attended his bail hearing, said a witness told her that Nembhard and Reid got into a tussle over $200 and that Reid “fell on a knife.”

Reid’s family has a hard time believing this story. “How do you fall on a knife and have it stab you in the neck?” said Patrick Reid, the victim’s older brother.

Reid worked as a security guard and lived with Faith Bryen. In addition to their two-year old son, he had a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, said Bryen.

Reid and Nembhard were both Jamaican immigrants who lived four blocks apart in the Edenwald section of the Bronx. Neither men had a criminal record, their relatives said.

Reid was a hard-working loving father, said Bryen. His mother, Leonora Allen, however, said she worried about him.

“When I immigrated to this country, I had expected more from Chris,” said Allen. “He attended the highest high school in Jamaica, he’s an intelligent guy. I don’t know what happened.”

Nembhard is the father of five and his wife of 20 years died in October, said his relative. According to Bryen, Nembhard ran a bar out of the basement apartment where the murder occurred. Nembhard is currently in jail and his next court date is March 11 at Bronx County Supreme Court.