July 4 Shooting Victim Stable, Police Investigating Feud

The woman shot in the back July 4 was in stable condition after emergency surgery Monday, according to police, as investigators probed the violent inter-family feud at St. Croix’s Candido Guadalupe Terrace.

Police said they’d been unaware of threats made online by the neighbors until the shooting Thursday afternoon. According to court records, a group of teenage boys had been harassing the 17-year-old son of Miguel Marrero, daring him to come outside and fight for at least two days. Marrero chased them away with a handgun July 3.

When the teens returned July 4, this time with a 15-year-old girl joining in, Marrero, who has six children, encouraged his son to fight the girl, according to court records. The boy beat the girl to the ground, drawing the attention of her mother.

A cellphone video of the incident shows a thin woman in a black tank top and jean shorts running barefoot through the litter-strewn courtyard, past a boy challenging another to a fight and other onlookers: a woman holding a baby swaddled in white, several young children, some appearing to be little older than toddlers.