Jan. 5, 2009 — St. John has the dubious honor of the territory's first murder of the year: Juan Ayala, owner of Cap's Place in Cruz Bay and the Pony Bar on St. Thomas, was found dead Monday at his home in Pastory.
A Pastory resident who did not want to be named had just returned home at about 8:10 a.m. when he heard what sounded like automatic gunfire.
"The shots happened very fast," he said. "It sounded like one or two bangs — bang, bang — then bang, bang, bang."
He called the police to report the shots.
The Pastory resident, who drove past Ayala's house on his way home, said he probably missed the incident by two minutes.
Another Pastory resident also heard a shot.
"I heard a pop," Evanna Chinnery said. "I thought a truck did something."
The investigation into the murder continues, said Police Commissioner James H. McCall. Ayala was shot multiple times, he said.
"We know someone had to see it," he said.
McCall said he didn't yet know if Ayala was targeted because he may have had money from his businesses at his house.
"We're still processing the scene," the police commissioner said.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Ayala, a native of Puerto Rico, lying near his house.
While the Pastory man said Ayala lived at the house with a woman, McCall said police haven't contacted her yet.
"She may be on vacation," McCall said.
Assisting the police department to secure the ports and waterways surrounding St. John are V.I. National Park officers, the V.I. Port Authority and the Planning and Natural Resources Department, as well as other agencies, McCall said. Law-enforcement officials in the British Virgin Islands have also been notified and are assisting the investigation.
National Park officers assisted in bringing McCall and Querrard from St. Thomas by boat, Superintendent Mark Hardgrove said.
"And I alerted all my rangers," he said.
Ayala was someone the community could depend on, said St. John Administrator Leona Smith.
"He had a nice personality," she said.
Smith called the murder very sad, particularly since it came at the beginning of the new year.
"It's a bad start for 2009," she said. The administrator sent her condolences to Ayala's family.
The Pastory resident who didn't want to be named called Ayala's killing a terrible thing.
"We're all in kind of shock," he said.
No one answered the phone at Cap's Place Monday afternoon. A call to the number listed for the Pony Bar yielded a message that it was "not a working number."
Cap's Place has been in the news before. A St. Thomas man was arrested in December for burglarizing the bar. The bar was the scene of a June 2008 armed robbery. Additionally, 14 illegal immigrants and 11 bags of crack cocaine were found in a December 2007 raid.
By late morning Monday, the news of Ayala's murder was posted on a travel forum.
McCall reminded residents that a $10,000 reward is available for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any murderer in the Virgin Islands. People with information are urged to call police emergency 911, the Major Crimes Unit at 715-5522, or the Chief of Police's Office at 715-5548.
Anyone with information about the crime can also call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-623-8477, said Paul Devine, who is helping to organize Crime Stoppers on St. John. If someone is arrested thanks to the tip, the person who called in the tip can collect a reward.
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