Arrest made in beating death of pioneering Black Bronx rocker

NEW YORK — (AP) — Police in New York City have arrested a man in connection with the beating death of a pioneering rock musician in the Bronx.

Sharief Bodden, 29, was charged Friday in the killing of Peter Forrest, a 64-year-old Bronx resident, who under the stage name P. Fluid had been a frontman for 24/7 Spyz.

The Bronx band was part of a wave of Black-led rock groups, including Living Colour and Fishbone, that emerged in the 1980s, melding elements of heavy metal, funk, R&B, punk and other genres.

Among the band's signature songs was was a remake of Kool & the Gang's "Jungle Boogie." Forrest quit the band during its 1990 tour with Jane's Addiction, according to Rolling Stone.

The Black Rock Coalition, a New York-based artists’ collective, remembered Forrest as an “essential chapter to an essential band” in the history of the group, which was formed by Vernon Reid of Living Colour and other Black musicians.

"Fluid was one of the most creative, charismatic, energetic and powerful frontmen in the business," the organization wrote on its Facebook page. "His stage presence and dynamic personality were matched only by a rare few."

Police say Forrest was found unconscious and beaten inside the private ambulette bus he drove on Monday. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the medical examiner's office determined he had blunt force injuries to his head and torso.

Surveillance video obtained by News 12 Bronx showed a man exit the bus around 9 a.m. and get into a separate car with a woman. About an hour later, another worker for the ambulette company arrived and discovered Forrest's body inside the van.

Bodden faces murder, manslaughter, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a weapon charges.

No lawyer was listed for him in the state's online court database. The Bronx's district attorney's office didn't respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.