Lopes describes 1995 slaying that sparked violence in Boston's Cape Verdean community

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

For the first time, Arnaldo “Nardo” Lopes today publicly described the fatal fight he had with Bobby Mendes on a Dorchester street nearly 13 years ago, a killing that Boston law enforcement officials say launched a civil war inside the city’s Cape Verdean community that has claimed dozens of victims.

Speaking in a calm voice, the now 30-year-old Lopes said he was being beaten by two of Mendes’s relatives armed with clubs when Mendes ran towards him holding what Lopes thought was a metal bar in his hands.

Lopes, who was 17 years old on Oct. 10, 1995, said he had a folding knife in his right hand during the incident on Wendover Street.

“At that point, I reacted and ended up swinging at Bobby,’’ Lopes testified in Suffolk Superior Court where he is on trial for second-degree murder for the Mendes stabbing.

Lopes said he was knocked to the ground by the 23-year-old Mendes, was briefly unconscious, but heard Mendes shout to his relatives that he had been stabbed by Lopes. “ ‘I’m going to (expletive) him up,’ ‘’ Lopes quoted Mendes as shouting.

Prosecution witnesses testifying earlier in the trial have said Mendes collapsed to the street after he was stabbed and that he was rushed to Boston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Following her son’s murder, Isaura Mendes has become an anti-violence activist in the city, and she was in court for most of Lopes’s testimony.

Testifying in his own defense, Lopes said Mendes’s relatives started chasing him and he ran through sidestreets onto Columbia Road where he found a payphone and called 911, telling a police dispatcher that he was involved in a stabbing but it was done in self-defense.

Prosecution witnesses said Lopes’s family home was surrounded by angry Mendes relatives that morning. Lopes testified he stayed at a friend’s house for one day and then fled Boston in fear for his life. He was on the run until April 30, 2007 when Boston police arrested him as he got off a plane from Jamaica.

Lopes told his attorney, Kevin J. Reddington, that he occasionally thought about returning to face the charges, but “the time never really felt right.’’

Lopes testified that he lived in Providence for two months and moved to New York City and lived there for three years, working under his own name as a day laborer. He then moved to Baltimore using an alias and eventually married and bought a townhouse with his wife.

He said he called his family in Boston no more than twice a year, telling them that “I was okay and doing well.’’

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