A day of shopping was interrupted by a hail of gunfire Saturday as two suspects were shot by police and two others arrested following an armed robbery at the Sunny Isles Shopping Center on St. Croix.
According to Deputy Police Chief Arthur Hector, who was on the scene along with Police Chief James Parris, police officers encountered the suspects exiting the business.
Officers received a report of the robbery from the 911 Emergency Dispatch at about 11:44 a.m. However, two VIPD officers were already in the area and responded to reports from concerned citizens.
The officers rushed to the Cleopatra’s Gift shop and encountered the suspects attempting to leave.
According to Hector, the officers were fired upon by the suspects and officers returned fire.
One witness told the Source he at first didn’t realize they were gunshots, because he heard so many.
"The most striking part of this incident was the number of shots fired. I refused to believe it was gunfire because there were just so many shots, all coming in the space of less than a minute," the witness said.
Two additional suspects were captured at the scene, police said.
According to the Deputy Chief, three armed suspects entered the store while one remained outside.
One suspect is an adult male and the remaining three are male minors between the ages of 17 and 14-years-old, he said. The initial police report did not include the names of the suspects.
The injured suspects were taken to the Governor Juan F. Luis hospital by ambulance. No bystanders or police officers were injured in the shooting.
The case is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Bureau detectives and agents from the Internal Affairs Bureau.
The remaining three were between 14 and 17. So many shots fired. Ready to kill at that age. I told you so. You took the children out of the church and now they are converting to demons. Keep your kids away from the realistic graphics of PS3 and Xbox. They are slowly desensitizing your kid’s mind to violence and terror by inculcation. I warned you!
But Chilli, these are the same sweet little lambs that everyone wants to be forgiven for using drugs and getting into mischief. Forget about them using guns that could have killed bystanders or police officers, they were just having fun. These poor little children probably don’t know who their fathers are or some other lame excuse.
Treat them like the thugs they are. If they use a gun, try them as adults and sentence them as adults. Take back St. Croix from the cowards that are trying to rule the island.
Mt Ghost,
There was a reason why the old folks made sure we attended church and respected the Word. When kids wake up on Sunday “afternoon” and reach for the PS3 controller before the toothbrush, something is seriously wrong. I know kids that average 6 hours per weekend day killing people in cyberspace. These games are creating the kids who are shooting at the police. Why? To buy more violent video games and hang out at Sunny Isles for the remaining 18 hours.
You and that church bullsh*t again. Sure let’s send our kids to church so their minds can be brainwashed with fairy tale stories and their backsides sodomized by pedophile priests. Forget personal responsibility, good parenting skills and teaching children the difference between fantasy and reality. It must be a miserable existence in that delusional world of yours.
Kudos to the police officers’ quick response. But I’m disappointed that those worthless vermin weren’t all shot dead. The costs to prosecute and incarcerate them will only add to the VIG financial woes.
I don’t understand why more people don’t frequent this website and posts comments and utilize the tools here,maybe if more people participated and supported in st.croix and off island as still citizens of the Virgin Islands maybe we’d see some growth,a lot of people move to the main land and just don’t look back don’t even care about current affairs on the island ,unless it’s watching people business on Facebook.i k ow it’s off topic..but damn where is the support,from home and abroad.
Where did you grow up?..st.croix had always been like this..it’s the same age students at Arthur Richards,John j Woodson ,central and Edu complex are when they was stabbing and drive by shootings in the 90’s…kmt st.croix has not changed to me.people act like the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s was peaceful times,oh please don’t join the balony .trinidad and st.lucia and Guyana and these places just start seeing what st.croix has always been like..I have Freinds in Jamaica and they say jamaica only got bad since the 1980 election with the shooting for votes..st.croix has been terrible way before that..stop bullshitting the public with fake stories….the neighborhoods of Kennedy and grove place,sion farm,Williams delight and the rest of these bad name neighborhoods has been at ( war )for generations and it’s something to be kept hush hush!..like underground fairy tails..I’m sick of this crap,expose this nonsense. So the proper help can reach here
We’ll stated
I have been saying for years
Hold the parents responsible ( as they should be anyway) and you will see a change……
We’ll stated
I have been saying for years
Hold the parents responsible ( as they should be anyway) and you will see a change……