An out­stand­ing po­lice of­fi­cer, a fa­ther fig­ure, a friend, a men­tor, a fam­i­ly man, an ad­vi­sor.

Act­ing Se­nior Supt Ter­rance Nobbee was de­scribed as all of these things and much more dur­ing his fu­ner­al ser­vice in San Fer­nan­do, on Wednes­day.

His death caused re­ver­ber­a­tions far and wide, said his close friend Dr Mar­lene Attz dur­ing the eu­lo­gy at the Open Bible Church in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day.

Attz said Nobbee was ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed but be­came a sta­tis­tic of COVID-19 on Jan­u­ary 10 due to his co­mor­bidi­ties.

She re­called that he land­ed his dream job as a po­lice of­fi­cer in 1988.

“Ter­rance Shaun Nobbee was a gift to us all. His gift to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go was his com­mit­ment to change the land­scape of crime in our coun­try,” she said.

Attz said he loved his fam­i­ly and was a fa­ther fig­ure and pil­lar of strength to his sis­ter Di­anne Nobbee-Roberts.

“He had love and ut­most re­spect for moth­er, aunts, un­cles, and in­ter­ac­tions with nieces and nephews who could get him to do prac­ti­cal­ly any­thing for them.”

Re­call­ing her last con­ver­sa­tion with Nobbee, whom she fond­ly called Ter­ry, she said on De­cem­ber 27 he told her he was at the Mt Hope Hos­pi­tal but not to pan­ic be­cause he would be okay.

She said he lat­er mes­saged her to say that he was be­ing trans­ferred to Cou­va Hos­pi­tal. Re­call­ing that God pro­tect­ed him when he was shot at Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion, when he got in­to a mo­tor ve­hi­cle ac­ci­dent in 2020, she said, “There is no doubt in my mind that he is at peace.”

Attz said ru­mours cir­cu­lat­ing once he was hos­pi­talised were self-serv­ing and re­flect­ed a dis­turb­ing na­tion­al past-time where fake news is the or­der of the day.

“It is sad to say that these ru­mours showed lit­tle or no re­gard for ei­ther Ter­ry’s well be­ing or his loved ones. They ac­tu­al­ly caused a lot of pain and an­guish,” she added.

Re­mem­ber­ing his col­league in glow­ing terms, act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Clint Arthur, who was in Nobbee’s batch, said Nobbee was a ‘leader among lead­ers’, a man of in­tegri­ty and to his word, who showed com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to his job de­spite set­backs in his life.

He said, “Ter­rance and I formed a bond that last­ed through­out the en­tire ser­vice. He was a men­tor and coun­sel­lor to me. Our friend­ship was a spe­cial one that I will al­ways trea­sure. Ter­rance Nobbee from the start of his ca­reer as a po­lice of­fi­cer was al­ways a man of an im­pec­ca­ble stan­dard and the batch here can say that one of the things that we first not­ed with Ter­ry was that he was al­ways neat­ly and well dressed. His shirts and pants had ra­zor cut­ting seams. His boots, but­tons and belts al­ways shiny.”

Arthur re­called that Nobbee worked in the Port- of-Spain Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment, the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, South­ern Di­vi­sion and in the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion where he served as the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent.

He added, “Up­on hear­ing of his death, of­fi­cers were heav­i­ly im­pact­ed. This in­deed is a tes­ti­mo­ny of a re­mark­able man.”

Act­ing As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Daniel Moore, Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Su­per­in­ten­dent Glen Charles, act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Karen Lan­cast­er-El­lis and act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Sam­pooran Kissoon­lal were among the of­fi­cers who al­so gave trib­utes.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob al­so made a pre­sen­ta­tion to Nobbee’s sis­ter on be­half of the TTPS.

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, of­fi­cers and fam­i­ly mem­bers walked be­hind the hearse from the top of Cipero Street to the JE Guide Fu­ner­al Home and Cre­ma­to­ri­um Lim­it­ed where a pri­vate cre­ma­tion was held