March 4, 2009 — The body of a man found in the stairwell of a building in Estate Tutu Tuesday has been identified as 51-year-old Larry Thomas, also known as "Kenny."
The victim's name was released Wednesday by Police Chief Rodney F. Querrard Sr. The identity had been withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Preliminary investigation by detectives of the Major Crime Unit revealed that Thomas had been shot multiple times sometime after midnight in one of the bottom floor stairwells. The body, however, was not discovered until 11:57 a.m. (See "Police Investigate Murder of Unidentified Man.")
"It is unfortunate that a small community such as ours has come to this," Querrard said. "Mr. Thomas, who was a mentally challenged individual and frequented the Four Winds Plaza daily, did not deserve to die like he did. No homicide victim deserves to die just because someone decides to take their life."
Querrard added an indictment of the community for failing to become involved.
"Not one call of shots fired was called in to 911," he said. "If one person had called in and had reported that shots had been fired in that area, it might have possibly saved Mr. Thomas's life. This is totally unacceptable. People in the community needs to know that the next shooting victim might be their child, brother, sister, parent or even themselves. We as a community need to join together and say that enough is enough! We cannot and should not allow these criminals in our community to run it. Not reporting a crime until it affects you yourself in one way or the other sends a message to the criminals that they can do what they want and it will not be reported. This has to stop!"
Anyone with information on the homicide can call Major Crime detectives at 715-5522 or 715-5514, the police chief's office at 715-5548 or Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-TIPS.
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