Two more homicides rock territory as violent crimes continue, police plead for help

A 17-year-old victim was shot and killed on St. Thomas early Sunday morning, only hours after V.I. Police leaders pleaded with the community to help bring an end to the territory’s rampant violence.

Police have not publicly identified a motive or possible suspects in the shooting that left Kareem L. Pinney dead at around 2:39 a.m. in the Grandview Housing Community, according to a statement issued by police spokeswoman Kishma Chichester. The homicide occurred shortly after police officials released a video statement on Saturday, criticizing the masked gunmen terrorizing the streets of St. Thomas and St. Croix. In the last month, “we’ve had three homicides in the St. Croix district, and we’ve had four homicides here in the St. Thomas district,” said Acting V.I. Police Commissioner Mario Brooks.

“Let me say this to you, the criminals, those idiots, those clowns — better yet, those cowards. That’s what you are, you are cowards. Because you’re putting on a mask, you’re going into these neighborhoods, you’re gunning people down and you’re speeding out of the area,” Brooks said, before calling on the perpetrators to “stop running” away and hiding after committing the crimes. “If you are so big and bad, if you are a man, a man stands on his own two feet when he commits an action and he faces the consequences. Stop running, stop putting on masks and running. Be a man and face us when we come out there looking for you. The gloves are off. The officers have 100% support from me to go out there and do what they have to do,” Brooks said in the prepared statement adding, “Ladies and gentlemen of the community, you no longer have to live in fear, this nonsense has to stop. We need to stop, as a community, we need to come together.”