VIDN_2003_DeadlyForce

THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DAILY NEWS
Copyright © 2003 Daily News Publishing Co.
!"#!$%
& '("#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/
23 $"")4,$$,#5*
.
irgin Islands police officers are getting
away with murder. Over the last 20 years,
officers have used deadly force 100 times.
Only 10 times have the officers been prosecuted
for using deadly force.
The officers shot 85 times and killed 28. They used
other forms of deadly force on 15 people.
Only 35 of the victims were armed; 65 were unarmed.
Only 17 of the 72 survivors were charged with a crime.
The Daily News found that many of the 85 shootings
in the last 20 years were so far outside the
boundaries of accepted law enforcement policy
and procedure that they astounded
national experts.
Why weren’t the officers
prosecuted? experts asked.
Why haven’t federal agencies
questioned the possible violation
of the victims’ civil rights?
Why hasn’t the Police Department
taken action to halt the misuse
of deadly force?
Why indeed.
The answers to those questions
are the subject of this special
investigative report.

The U.S. Supreme Court has set strict rules
about police use of deadly force,
but V.I. police and prosecutors ignore the high court
/67)(897
About 10:45 p.m. on Oct. 3, 1974, Memphis
police officers Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright
answered a “prowler inside call.” Upon arriving at
the scene, they saw a woman standing on her porch
and gesturing toward the adjacent house. She told
them she had heard glass breaking. Hymon went
behind the house. He heard a door slam and saw
someone run across the back yard. The fleeing sus-
pect, Edward Garner, 15, stopped at a 6-foot-high
chain-link fence. With the aid of a flashlight,
Hymon was able to see Garner’s face and hands. He
saw no sign of a weapon and, as he testified later,
was “reasonably sure” and “figured” that Garner
was unarmed.
Hymon called out, “Police. Halt.” Then he took a
few steps toward Garner, who began to climb over
the fence. Convinced that if Garner made it over the
fence he would escape, Hymon shot him. The bullet
hit Garner in the back of the head, and he died on the
operating table. Garner’s father sued, alleging that
his son’s Fourth Amendment constitutional rights
were violated when the police officer shot and killed
him.
/67)!7:;9;<=
The Supreme Court of the United States held that
the Fourth Amendment prohibits the use of deadly
force to apprehend a suspect unless the officer has
probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a
significant threat of death or serious physical injury
to the officer or to others.
The opinion was delivered by Justice Byron
White, joined by Justice William Brennan, Justice
Thurgood Marshall, Justice Harry Blackmun,
Justice Lewis Powell Jr. and Justice John Paul
Stevens.
">?@8:?9
A@<B)?67)1C;=;<=
• “The use of deadly force to prevent the escape
of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances,
is constitutionally unreasonable.”
• “It is not better that all felony suspects die than
that they escape.”
• “Where the suspect poses no immediate threat
to the officer and no threat to others, the harm result-
ing from failing to apprehend him does not justify
the use of deadly force to do so.”
• “A police officer may not seize an unarmed,
nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead.”
• “The use of deadly force is a self-defeating way
of apprehending a suspect and so setting the criminal
justice mechanism in motion. If successful, it guaran-
tees that that mechanism will not be set in motion.
And while the meaningful threat of deadly force
might be thought to lead to the arrest of more live sus-
pects by discouraging escape attempts, the presently
available evidence does not support this thesis.”
• “The fact is that a majority of police depart-
ments in this country have forbidden the use of
deadly force against nonviolent suspects. If those
charged with the enforcement of the criminal law
have abjured the use of deadly force in arresting
nondangerous felons, there is a substantial basis for
doubting that the use of such force is an essential
attribute of the arrest power in all felony cases.”
• “It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who
is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive
a little late or are a little slower afoot does not
always justify killing the suspect.”
• “It should be remembered that failure to appre-
hend at the scene does not necessarily mean that the
suspect will never be caught.”
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5* Tuesday, December 30, 2003D The Virgin Islands Daily News
/7==79977)EF)08@=7@
Law of the land
/
he U.S. Supreme Court has estab-
lished strict rules for law enforce-
ment in the states and territories. The
rules arise from several landmark decisions
and are a bible to police, prosecutors, defense
attorneys and judges throughout the nation.
They include:
• Miranda v. Arizona — This 1966
ruling requires that all people who are arrest-
ed and questioned be advised of their consti-
tutional rights in the criminal justice process.
That advice starts with the standardized
phrase, “You have the right to remain
silent.”
• Tennessee v. Garner — This 1985
ruling gives police officers only two legal
reasons to shoot people: in defense of the
officer’s life or in defense of the life of anoth-
er person. The Garner decision restricts law
officers from shooting anyone — even
felons — for merely running away and does
not allow police to use deadly force to protect
property.
Nationwide, law enforcement agencies
base their deadly force policies on the Garner
decision. Further, they use it as the litmus test
to determine whether to press charges and
impose discipline when one of their officers
uses deadly force.
In the Virgin Islands, the top two law offi-
cers are not familiar with the Garner decision.
Police Commissioner Elton Lewis, who
decides whether an officer-involved shooting
violated department policy and whether dis-
cipline is necessary, said in an interview with
The Daily News that he could not discuss the
Garner decision because he did not know it.
“I’m not a lawyer,” Lewis said.
V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron, on
the other hand, is a lawyer. Yet he, too, drew
a blank when The Daily News asked him
about Garner.
“You’d better tell me what that is,”
Stridiron said.
Informed that Garner is the landmark
Supreme Court decision restricting police
use of deadly force, Stridiron responded:
“The linchpin of that case is something
we’ve often said in the Virgin Islands: It does
not appear that police officers enjoy killing
people.”
Stridiron went on to say that under the
Garner decision, a police officer can use
deadly force “generally to protect the lives
— or property — of people of the Virgin
Islands.”
Nowhere in the Garner decision or in sub-
sequent decisions did the Supreme Court
state that an officer can use deadly force to
protect someone’s possessions.

!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5*Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News G
H/673I@7)96<<?;=J)C7<CK7)L6<)M<=I?)C<97)8)?6@78?
8=M)L6<)96<NKM=I?)27)96<?FO
— Sam Walker, professor of criminal justice, University of Nebraska
Law enforcement
out of control
Lack of training, leadership and accountability leaves V.I. police
free to use deadly force at will without facing the consequences
/
he Daily News examined 85 shootings by
police for this special investigative report, and
in each case asked this question: When Virgin
Islands police officers drew their guns and opened fire,
who were they shooting at?
Was it someone who was shooting at the officer?
Almost never.
Was it someone who was about to kill other people?
Almost never.
Was it someone who was committing a violent
crime? Almost never.
So who was it?
Those 85 shootings show that over and over again,
V.I. police:
• Shoot unarmed people.
• Shoot people who are running away.
• Shoot at people who are driving moving vehicles.
• Shoot innocent bystanders.
• Shoot other officers.
• Shoot people who are not valid suspects.
• Shoot people who are black and poor, and some
who are homeless, retarded or mentally ill.
In the 85 shootings by police that The Daily News
examined, 65 of the victims were unarmed, which
means that in 3 of every 4 shootings, the police shot
people who could not have hurt them or other people.
“Those numbers are outrageous,” said Penny
Harrington, a national expert on police policy and pro-
cedure. “They’re not supposed to use deadly force
unless confronted with deadly force.”
Sam Walker, also a national expert on policing,
criminal justice and crime policy, was astonished by
the statistics on unarmed victims.
“Those numbers are frightening, alarming and very
serious,” Walker said. “The prevailing standard is to
shoot only in the defense of your life or the life of
another.
“Shooting unarmed people — that’s very, very dis-
turbing.”
Attorney General Iver Stridiron, who has prosecuted
only two of the 10 police shootings of unarmed people
during his term — both prosecutions were unsuccess-
ful — had no explanation for the extraordinarily high
number of unarmed people shot by Virgin Islands
police officers.
“I must confess, I don’t know,” he said. “What we
basically say is: The police officer responded and the
circumstances were such that the officer had to dis-
charge his weapon.”
Federal Public Defender Thurston McKelvin has a
different perspective.
“It could be suggestive that police are making a mis-
take when they say they saw someone with a weapon,”
McKelvin said. “It can also suggest fabrication.”
McKelvin compared the Virgin Islands shootings of
unarmed people to the infamous Rodney King case in
Los Angeles in 1991. King, who had been pulled over
for speeding and running a red light, was severely beat-
en by Los Angeles police officers.
“King’s criminal acts did not justify the police beat-
ing him,” McKelvin said. “No criminal act ever justi-
fies police engaging in unlawful behavior.”
U.S. Marshal Conrad Hoover, a former Virgin
Islands police officer and detective, observed that vio-
lence in the territory is increasing, as are illegal ship-
ments of guns and drugs, which puts the V.I. officers’
shootings in a more sympathetic light.
“There are gunshots going off all night here now,”
Hoover said. “Just by someone’s behavior, you have to
almost assume they’re armed.”
Hoover, who was shot while he was a police officer,
said, “It’s always unfortunate when an unarmed person
is shot, but having been there, a split second is all it
takes. It’s amazing how quick that time is.”
Police Commissioner Elton Lewis declined to com-
ment on the 65 cases in which officers shot unarmed
people. “I am unaware of these cases,” Lewis said.
Lewis was out of the department and out of the ter-
ritory from 1998 until earlier this year. He returned to
the department when he was appointed police commis-
sioner in March. Since that time, police officers have
shot to death a man swinging a knife, shot to death a
man in his home, shot a man in the groin and shot a
man in the leg.
The ongoing investigations into the cases are under
wraps. In keeping with the Police Department’s inter-
pretation of its union contract with the Police
Benevolent Association, the department conceals the
names of officers under investigation until the attorney
general decides whether to prosecute. The Daily News
is challenging that, on the basis that it violates the
Virgin Islands Open Public Records Act.
H/67)<AA;:7@)M;M=I?)68E7)C@<282K7):8N97)?<)B8P7
8=)8@@79?Q)BN:6)K799)96<<?)9<B7<=7FO
— D.P. Van Blaricom, national expert and retired police chief,
Bellevue, Wash., Police Department
H/67@7I9)9<B7?6;=J)L83)<N?)<A)P;K?7@)?67@7F),?
:7@?8;=K3)97=M9)NC)9<B7)@7M)AK8J9F)/<)N97)M78MK3
A<@:7)3<N)68E7)J<?)?<)68E7)8):68@J7)8J8;=9?)?67
;=M;E;MN8KFO
— John Sullivan, national expert and retired chief of detectives and retired commander
of the Internal Affairs Bureau, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
H,?):<NKM)9NJJ79?)?68?)C<K;:7)8@7)<N?)?67@7)?8P;=J
8ME8=?8J7)<A)?67):;?;R7=@3FO
— Penny Harrington, national expert and former police chief,
Portland, Ore., Police Department
,=M7>
/S")$#4
Page 2
/S").,(/,5*
Pages 4-19
• Revealing stories
• 100 cases
/S").F,F)+1$,("
!"+#'/5"-/
Pages 20-35
• Organizational chart
• National comparisons
• Training problems
• Policy problems
• Money problems
• Ineffective work
• Unsolved murders
• Community suspicion
/S")+'1*"(T/,1-
Pages 36-38
• Bad investigations
• Bad decisions
• Bad records
*1$T/,1-*
Pages 39-42
• Actions to take
• Resources to use
%1T')1+,-,1-U
Page 43

/
errance Heywood loved the sea.
He grew up in Marley housing community
on St. Croix, a stone’s throw from the ocean.
“All his life he’d be on the beach. He was all the time
swimming or fishing,” recalled his sister, Bobby
Heywood.
Heywood was a big man. To his family and friends
he was known as “Bouncer.”
“He was kinda heavy, so he used to bounce a bit,”
Bobby Heywood said.
In the autumn of 2001, six months before his death,
Heywood moved back to St. Croix from Washington,
D.C., where he had worked as a computer technician.
While he was in the nation’s capital, Heywood often
told his family back home how he longed for West
Indian food and missed the warm Caribbean.
On April 26, 2002, Heywood was driving past
Dorsch Beach, south of Frederiksted, and stopped
about 100 yards from his girlfriend’s house to take a
quick dip.
Heywood had no bathing suit, but that did not stop
him. He often swam naked as a child and occasionally
as an adult. No one ever complained.
But this time, a tourist on the beach called police.
Officer Alfredo Cruz was dispatched to investigate.
Witness accounts vary, but the one thing all agreed
on is that Heywood emerged from the sea naked and
completely unarmed.
Police said Heywood became belligerent, used pro-
fanity and advanced on Cruz, statements Heywood’s
family strongly doubts.
Cruz fired five shots, hitting Heywood in the neck,
arms and chest.
The 37-year-old man who loved the sea fell to the
beach, mortally wounded and pumping blood onto the
sugar-white sand. He was dead in moments.
Bobby Heywood was at home in WIM Hodge
Pavilion housing community when a terrified 16-year-
old neighbor who had seen everything ran home to
report the killing.
“A young boy, he were on the beach. He were so
scared. He should not have seen anything like that,”
Bobby Heywood said. “He told me, ‘Your brother just
got shot. Police killed him down there.’”
To this day, no one from the Police Department or
the Attorney General’s Office has talked to Heywood’s
family about what happened that day.
Others, however, had plenty to say.
/L;9?7M)?8K79
“Our witness say Bouncer come out of the water
with his hands up, and the officer just empty his gun at
him,” Bobby Heywood said. “The eyewitness, they say
my brother never made body contact with the officer.
The only body that were on the ground were my dead
brother.”
In his written decision issued eight months after
the shooting, Attorney General Iver Stridiron found
Heywood’s death to be justified, and he commend-
ed Cruz.
Stridiron reasoned that “a naked man may be just as
deadly with his bare hands or with a gun wrestled from
the officer’s grasp.”
Stridiron also conjectured that at one point Heywood
pushed or struck Cruz, and the officer fell to the ground
and his “gun inadvertently was discharged.”
That gun was a 9 mm Glock-17, a model used by 65
percent of all police departments in the United States.
It is a state-of-the-art firearm equipped with three
internal safeties and an external safety mounted on the
trigger.
The Glock has been subjected to rigorous “drop
tests” and never has inadvertently discharged, accord-
ing to the manufacturer. “The Glock has been tested by
more than 400 departments across the country,” said
Kevin Conner, a spokesman for Glock USA. “It may
be the most highly tested pistol out there.”
The only way the pistol will fire is if someone pulls
the trigger, he said.
“We’ve sold nearly 3 million pistols. We haven’t
had an instance of an accidental or inadvertent dis-
charge,” Conner said.
After the shot that Stridiron described as an “inad-
vertent discharge,” Cruz fired at least four more rounds
at Heywood.
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5* Tuesday, December 30, 2003V The Virgin Islands Daily News
Bloodshedon the beachOfficer left non-lethal weapon in his car – then drew his pistol and killed a naked, unarmed man
Daily News Photo by CRISTIAN SIMESCU
Bobby Heywood visits Frederiksted’s Dorsch Beach at the spot where her brother was shot to death last year by a V.I. police officer. The officer was not charged.
H1N@)L;?=799)983)W<N=:7@):<B7)<N?)<A)?67)L8?7@)L;?6)6;9)68=M9)NC
8=M)?67)<AA;:7@)XN9?)7BC?3)6;9)JN=)8?)6;BF
/67)737L;?=799Q)?673)983)B3)2@<?67@)=7E7@)B8M7)2<M3):<=?8:?)L;?6)?67)<AA;:7@F
/67)<=K3)2<M3)?68?)L7@7)<=)?67)J@<N=M)L7@7)B3)M78M)2@<?67@FO
— Bobby Heywood, sister of police shooting victim Terrance Heywood
.F,F)C<K;:7)M<
=<?)@7:7;E7
?@8;=;=J);=
8E<;M;=J)M78MK3
A<@:7Q)8=M)
?67)C<K;:7
:<BB;99;<=7@
P=<L9)?67
<AA;:7@9)<A?7=
M<)=<?):8@@3)<@
N97)=<=YK7?68K
8K?7@=8?;E79F
+8J7)DD
See W1T-("', next page

The killing sparked two protest marches on St.
Croix. One drew more than 100 demonstrators. They
filed past the police substation in Frederiksted to the
beach where Heywood was killed. Someone put up a
homemade memorial: a simple wooden plaque bearing
Heywood’s picture and a story denouncing excessive
force by police.
“Our whole family is very hurt, very upset and very
angry,” Bobby Heywood said.
She and her brothers and sisters have called for an
FBI investigation into their brother’s death. Federal
investigators would neither confirm nor deny whether
they are probing the shooting.
Even though Stridiron justified the killing and com-
mended the officer’s actions, he said he would support
an FBI investigation.
“I think, just like anything else, my decision should
be checked,” Stridiron said. “When you go to a doctor,
you get a second opinion. I would have no problem
with it.”
Mike Clarke, the FBI’s supervisory special agent
assigned to the territory, cited U.S. Justice Department
policy barring comment on ongoing investigations and
would not say whether his office is investigating the
Heywood case.
Cruz did not respond to requests from The Daily
News for an interview.
Police Commissioner Elton Lewis, who took over
the department almost a year after Heywood was
killed, would not comment directly on the case other
than to say, “Any shooting for any family who’s lost a
loved one is tragic. It’s unfortunate it had to occur. I
wish them the best.”
468?)?67)7>C7@?9)983
John Sullivan, former chief of detectives for the Las
Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and a retired
deputy police chief, said taking Heywood’s life would
be hard to justify since the man was naked and obvi-
ously unarmed.
Sullivan, who has 34 years of law enforcement expe-
rience and now works as an expert witness, consultant
and police trainer, also said that the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department would have handled
the situation differently.
“The officer would have been fired and criminally
charged with manslaughter,” Sullivan said.
D.P. Van Blaricom, a retired police chief and career
police officer from Bellevue, Wash., was even more
blunt: “I would have fired his ass.”
“I would find that difficult to justify under any sce-
nario you name,” Van Blaricom said upon learning the
details of Heywood’s death.
Penny Harrington, a former chief of the Portland,
Ore., Police Department who now works as a consult-
ant and expert witness about police policies and proce-
dures, faults Stridiron.
“Usually, when a police officer shoots someone,
they’re armed with a gun or a knife,” said Harrington.
“Even when a person is totally out of control, they can
use pepper spray, control weapons or call for backup. I
can’t see how he justified the shooting. And he even
commended him? There’s your problem.”
Stridiron himself said the police officer should have
employed less than lethal weapons.
“Apparently the nightstick was in the car,” he said,
referring to Cruz’s PR-24 nightstick, which officers
often leave in their patrol cars because they are heavy.
“With the benefit of hindsight, we could say the offi-
cer should have run away,” Stridiron said.
Stridiron said he did not base his decision on the
police reports, the post-shooting investigation or what
Cruz said. He based it solely on the testimony of sev-
eral tourists who were on the beach.
Those tourists said they saw Cruz backing away,
Stridiron said, then saw Heywood lunge forward as the
officer turned to call for backup.
Stridiron acknowledged that other witness testimony
conflicted with that version of events and that other
witnesses reported seeing no contact between the offi-
cer and Heywood.
He dismissed it, however, saying those witnesses
“were a quarter-mile down the beach.”
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5*Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News Z
H"E7=)L67=)8)C7@9<=);9)?<?8KK3)<N?)<A):<=?@<KQ
?673):8=)N97)C7CC7@)9C@83Q
:<=?@<K)L78C<=9)<@):8KK)A<@)28:PNCFO
— Penny Harrington, a former chief of the Portland Police Department
Residents marched in June 2002 to demand further investigation into Terrance Heywood’s death. The police and attorney general ignored the community outcry.
!78MK3
A<@:7
;=)?67
.;@J;=
,9K8=M9
The Daily News
examined the files on
100 incidents from 1984
through 2003 in which
Virgin Islands police
officers used deadly
force. Among the
findings:
Duty status — The
officer was on duty in
57 of the cases, off
duty in 40; status is
unclear in three.
Fatalities — The victim
was killed in 1 of
every 3 shootings by
police.
Type of threat — The
victim was unarmed
in 3 of every 4
shootings.
Officer unidentified —
The officer never was
named in 62 — 73
percent — of the 85
shootings.
Multiple shooters —
Officer James Oswald
and Officer James
Stout have shot at
suspects twice during
their careers.
Multiple victim —
Alfredo Barrott was
shot by police in two
separate incidents, 10
years apart. The
second was fatal.
Island-by-island — St.
Thomas had 60, St.
Croix had 39 and St.
John had one
reported use of
deadly force.
Victim age — Average
age of shooting
victims was 27.
Prosecution of officers
— Thirteen officers in
10 cases overall were
prosecuted on
charges stemming
from their use of
deadly force. Only six
cases got to court
and only two led to
jail time. One of those
convictions soon was
overturned.
Shots fired — In the 85
shootings, 82 were
handguns and three
were shotguns.
Prosecution of victims
— Of the 72 victims
who survived a deadly
force encounter with
police, only 17 — less
than 1 in 4 — were
charged with a crime
connected to events
before or during the
incident.
W1T-("'
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

These are some of the 100 cases The Daily News examined:
[8=N8@3)ZQ)]^Z)_)*?F)(@<;>
Off-duty officer James Oswald shot and killed 22-year-old
Delroy Williams, who had been accused of purse snatching.
On the same day, the same officer, Oswald, shot a 17-year-old
boy in the shoulder. The officer is no longer in the department.
&72@N8@3)Q)]^Z)_)*?F)(@<;>
A police officer shot and killed 19-year-old Shawn Miller, a
burglary suspect. Police later said they found a knife under the
victim, which they said proved the officer shot in self-defense.
Another police officer shot a 19-year-old man in the same
incident. The victim was wounded in the shoulder. The Police
Department could not provide that victim’s name for this report.
On the same day, a third police officer shot a 19-year-old
burglary suspect in the back as he tried to run away. The Police
Department could not provide that victim’s name for this report.
In response to public outcry after the onslaught of shootings
by the police, Acting Police Commissioner George Farrelly said
officers are allowed to shoot fleeing felons, a view that still
holds in the department despite prohibitive court rulings.
“Shootings depend on the officers’ discretion. Officers are
instructed, however, to shoot only in times when lives or
property are in danger,” Farrelly said in 1985, just seven weeks
before the Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officers
cannot use deadly force to protect property.
Deputy Police Chief Anthon Christian refused to release the
names of the officers involved in the series of shootings, but a
letter obtained by The Daily News dated March 6, 1985, to
Christian from Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Jones said: “After a
review of the evidence (including medical reports), no evidence
was found that the officers acted unlawfully.”
The three officers were not prosecuted.
&72@N8@3)]Q)]^Z)_)*?F)(@<;>
A police officer shot a 26-year-old man in the testicles. The
victim fled but later was arrested, according to the police blotter
report, which was the only available information.
583)Q)]^`)_)*?F)/6<B89
A police officer attempting to arrest a man shot and wounded
the suspect’s friend. No information other than the police blotter
entry could be found. The Police Department could not provide
that victim’s name for this report. Neither the department nor
the court have records that the officer was prosecuted.
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5* Tuesday, December 30, 2003` The Virgin Islands Daily News
Getting away
with murderIn the 18 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Tennessee v. Garner, Virgin Islands police have used deadly force
in case after case. The circumstances vary and show a range of problems in selection, training, funding and leadership of the territory’s
police. One factor consistently stands out: When police officers use deadly force, they are held to a lower, less-demanding standard.
583)D^Q)]^`)_)*?F)(@<;>
Police Officer Roland Jenkins shot Leonard Boatswain to
death while searching in the bush in Estate Pearl for an
escaped rapist. Jenkins shot the victim six times, in the head,
chest, heart, neck, arm and leg. Jenkins, a K-9 Corps officer,
was charged with second-degree murder, and he pleaded
guilty to voluntary manslaughter but later withdrew the plea.
Federal prosecutors produced evidence of a cover-up of what
they said was an unjustified killing. In District Court,
prosecutors argued that Jenkins shot the man in panic and
contrived a story about a machete attack on himself and his
police dog to justify the killing as self-defense. Prosecutors
bolstered their claim that Jenkins planted a machete on the
body by pointing out that the machete had unbroken cobwebs
on its handle. An investigating officer said the machete had
been moved from near the body and placed in the victim’s
hand at the crime scene. One of Boatswain’s friends testified
that the machete did not belong to Boatswain. The defense
argued that Jenkins was alone in the bush and had to make a
split-second decision based on his belief that his life was in
danger. The trial lasted a week, and the 12-member jury
returned a not guilty verdict after eight hours of deliberation.
The officer no longer is on the department payroll list, but
police would not disclose the date or reason for the
departure.
[NK3)]Q)]^`)_)*?F)/6<B89
Police Officer Henry Christopher fatally shot James
Carpenter, a California man jogging near Sub Base.
Christopher was investigating an assault report and stopped
the jogger to question him. Police later said the officer
attempted to arrest the jogger, but the reports did not explain
why the officer shot the victim in the head at close range.
Police Commissioner George Farrelly said after the
shooting: “The officer has to use his own discretion at a
particular scene. The weapon is a tool of his trade.”
The officer was not prosecuted.
“This was an accidental shooting by a police officer who
was effecting an arrest,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Dunston.
Christopher no longer is in the department.
See (#*")W%)(#*", next page
.
irgin Islands police officers have been getting
away with murder for decades.
January and February 1985, for exam-
ple, were particularly bloody months for the V.I.
Police Department. Police shot and killed six peo-
ple and wounded four others in that brief span, and
on one day, Feb. 11, 1985, police shot and killed
one young man and shot and wounded two others.
One officer was the shooter in two unrelated
shootings on one day, Jan. 15, 1985.
In the aftermath, a public defender demanded a
probe into the shootings.
Nothing happened.
Police abuse of deadly force has gone unchecked
while authorities — police commissioners, attor-
neys general and the governors who appoint them
— have excused it over and over again.
The Daily News examined 100 cases of police
use of deadly force in the 20 years from the begin-
ning of 1984 to the last week of December 2003.
Several cases clearly were justified uses of deadly
force.
Many cases, however, were just as clearly not
justified and raise questions about police training
and fitness to serve, department policy and the
attorney general’s interpretation and understand-
ing of the law.
In a number of the cases, especially the older
ones, police said they did not know the names of
the officers or victims and did not know the cir-
cumstances of the case or the outcome of any
investigation that might have followed. In some
cases, police had no information on whether the
victims survived or died.
The Daily News relied on the newspaper’s
archives for identifying and analyzing some of the
older cases.
The Police Department’s failure to track its own
use of deadly force calls into question whether the
department takes the issue seriously.
(#*")W%)(#*"

*7C?7B27@)]Q)]^a)_)*?F)/6<B89
One of dozens of officers conducting a manhunt for
robbery suspects shot Virgil James, 20, in the back. The
victim survived, and police refused to say who shot the man
or how the shooting occurred. No charges were filed against
the victim.
The department did not name the officers.
None of the officers were prosecuted.
-<E7B27@)DGQ)]^^)_)*?F)(@<;>
A police officer shot several rounds at Thomas Williams,
52, who was in the middle of a lunch crowd in downtown
Christiansted. She missed hitting anyone, including Williams,
who struck her on the face with a machete. The department
did not name the officer, and she was not prosecuted.
!7:7B27@)`Q)]^^)_)*?F)/6<B89
A police officer shot Clayton Griffin, 24, in the arm when he
shot at officers who said they caught him breaking into a
Contant restaurant. The officers said two other suspects
escaped. The department did not name the officer, and he
was not prosecuted.
[8=N8@3)ZQ)]^])_)*?F)/6<B89
A police officer shot Alfredo Barrott in the stomach in the
office of attorney Iver Stridiron. In 1999, Stridiron was
appointed V.I. attorney general, but in 1989 he was a lawyer
in private practice. On the day Barrott was shot, the officer
responded to a call from Stridiron’s law office requesting help
with a domestic dispute involving Barrott. Police Chief Alberto
Donastorg said in a press release that when the officer
arrived, Barrott tried to take the weapon from the officer’s
holster. “In the struggle between him and the officer, our
speculation is that it went off.” The officer was not named or
charged.
Ten years later, a different police officer killed Barrott by
shooting him six times. As attorney general, Stridiron found
no reason to prosecute.
[8=N8@3)^Q)]^])_)*?F)(@<;>
A police sergeant shot a man in the stomach when the
man attempted to club him. The victim was one of four men
who attacked the sergeant after he flashed his vehicle’s red
lights at their car, which was impeding traffic.
Police Captain Ohanio Harris said the victim was shot as
the policeman fired a round of bullets from his pistol to scare
the attackers away.
Neither the victim nor his companions were arrested.
The officer was not named, and he was not prosecuted.
[8=N8@3)Q)]^])_)*?F)/6<B89
A police officer fired two warning shots at someone police
described as a “known mental patient” who was attacking
him with two cans of soda on Charlotte Amalie’s Back Street.
The officer had encountered the 35-year-old man sleeping
behind a building. “The officer went to wake him up, and he
became somewhat indignant and they got into a scuffle,”
Police Chief Alberto Donastorg said. The man ran down the
street and returned with two cans of soda, with which he
tried to hit officer, Donastorg said. In response, the officer
fired two shots into the air. The man was not struck by the
rounds. He was arrested.
[8=N8@3)DDQ)]^])_)*?F)/6<B89
Police officers fatally shot Randall Nelson, 32, multiple
times in the head outside St. Thomas Hospital. Police said
Nelson, whom they described as “a known mental patient,”
was armed with two screwdrivers and jumped on an officer.
Police Chief Alberto Donastorg said, “Such incidents
sadden me quite a bit. We have a problem with respect to
mental patients.”
Seven days after the shooting, the police investigation
cleared all officers involved. None were named.
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5*Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News a
(#*")W%)(#*"
Criticized
yet justified
Kerby Charles, a confused, frail, mentally unstable man,
wandered into a police officer’s back yard
– a mistake that cost him his life
b
erby Charles was a nice but confused
young man whose family was strug-
gling to take care of him through his
mental illness.
“He started to get sick, and it just took him,”
said his aunt, Goldine Charlemagne. “He was in
a mental state. The room he was staying in — he
started drawing on the walls. We were all trying
to get help for him.”
Charles spent some time at a mental hospital
in the states, but his condition did not change.
When he got back home, the 21-year-old
tended to wander off, his aunt said.
Neighbors, familiar with Charles’ problem,
would call the family when they spotted him.
His family would take him back to his grand-
mother’s home in Estate William’s Delight on
St. Croix.
His family is adamant that although he was
confused, Charles was never violent. They
describe him as unusually small and say he was
sweet-natured.
“He was a good man who never hurt any-
body,” said another aunt, Joan Clark. “He was
not always with me, but for sure I know he never
do anybody wrong.”
Charlemagne agrees.
“It was well-known that he had mental
issues,” she said. “He was a nice guy, and peo-
ple who knew him thought he was a nice guy. He
never hurt anyone.”
On the night of Jan. 24, 2002, Sgt. Ricky
Hernandez, 40, a 14-year police veteran, was off
duty and at home in Estate Whim when he heard
dogs barking outside.
He picked up his gun and went out to investi-
gate.
Charles was in the back yard.
Hernandez said later that he approached
Charles with his gun drawn. A struggle ensued.
Charles was shot and killed.
In his written decision, which criticized but
still justified the shooting, Attorney General Iver
Stridiron said Charles attempted to take the gun
away from Hernandez, and “we are uncertain
whose finger pulled the trigger which discharged
the bullet, which struck and killed Charles.”
Charles’ family says that is preposterous.
“He wasn’t even 100 pounds,” said
Charlemagne. “He was maybe 4 feet 9 inches
tall. He wasn’t even 5 feet. And he was skinny.
He was a small, small man. Because he was so
sick, he would sometimes forget to eat. He was
like a little girl.”
Stridiron said the officer failed to follow basic
police procedure, such as calling for backup, yet
the attorney general found no justification for
prosecuting Hernandez.
The circumstances of Charles’ death spotlight
how far the Virgin Islands Police Department
differs from the norm in its use of deadly force:
Of the 100 police uses of deadly force The Daily
News examined for this special report, 40 were
committed by off-duty officers.
In most police departments in the nation, off-
duty shootings amount to a fraction of the dead-
ly force incidents, and the national average is 5
percent.
.F,F)C<K;:7)=77M
?@8;=;=J);=)6<L
8=M)L67=)?<
N97)M78MK3
A<@:7F
+8J7)DD

#NJN9?)ZQ)]^])_)*?F)[<6=
Police officers clubbed a handcuffed suspect on the head
with a baton and choked him at the Cruz Bay police station,
according to two witnesses, who reported it to The Daily
News. The witnesses said that when they tried to protest the
assault to the Police Department and file a complaint, they
were told not to interfere with police business.
Police would not name the officers, and they were never
prosecuted.
A witness to the beating identified one of the officers as
Elvis Sprauve, who remains on the force.
The man the witnesses saw taken into the station was
Friske Johnson, 20, of Chocolate Hole.
Johnson was charged with grand larceny, aggravated
assault and battery as well as resisting arrest.
All charges against Johnson were dismissed within a week,
and he was released. He could not be located for this report.
1:?<27@)aQ)]^])_)*?F)/6<B89
Five officers in several vehicles shot at and wounded a
young woman, Magdalin Jerson, 19, who was a passenger in
a car at the Kirwan Terrace playground. Jerson reported that
she and a 17-year-old friend had been parked by the
playground about 10 minutes and were pulling away when
she heard a loud noise and felt the breath knocked out of her.
The pair then saw a vehicle behind them with flashing blue
lights.
Jerson, who was shot in the back, recovered and never
was charged with a crime. She said neither she nor her friend
knew any reason the police would have shot at them.
The shooting raised public demands for a civilian review
board to oversee the disposition of complaints against police,
but those fell on deaf ears.
The officers were disciplined for violating department
policy. Their punishment ranged from a 10-day suspension to
a reprimand. At first, none of the officers were named. The
department later identified them as Sgt. Alvis Raymond and
officers Francis Brooks, Manuel Christian, Kent Hodge and
Dennis Vanterpool. All were allowed to stay on the force.
Four years later, Brooks and Hodge were accused of
setting a homeless man on fire. They were tried and acquitted
and returned to the force, where they remain today.
Eleven years after the shooting of Magdalin Jerson,
Vanterpool shot and killed a territorial marshal. Vanterpool was
cleared of wrongdoing and remains on the force.
#C@;K)DaQ)]]c)_)*?F)/6<B89
A police officer shot and killed Donald Blyden, 25, of Kirwan
Terrace. Police Chief Alberto Donastorg Sr. said Blyden
obstructed the officer, whom he threatened with a bottle and
a rock. Donastorg said Blyden “lunged” at the officer after
being told to halt “two to three times.” The officer was not
named “out of concern for the officer’s and his family’s
safety.”
-<E7B27@)DVQ)]]c)_)*?F)/6<B89
Three police officers opened fire on a woman driving down
the wrong side of Veterans Drive. The woman, who the
Police Department identified only as “Jane Doe,” was not hit
by the gunfire, but her 1990 Ford swerved off the road, hit a
palm tree and flipped onto its roof. One witness counted nine
bullet holes in the car.
The driver told a friend the only reason she did not stop
was because the officers were shooting at her.
She was fined $375 for reckless driving, which she paid
and then immediately left the island.
The department did not name or charge the officers.
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5* Tuesday, December 30, 2003^ The Virgin Islands Daily News
(#*")W%)(#*"
/
he Virgin Islands Police
Department repeatedly has used
deadly force on the community’s
most vulnerable: the mentally ill, the
retarded and the homeless.
Police departments nationwide train
their officers to de-escalate potentially dan-
gerous situations involving the mentally ill
or emotionally disturbed. Often, when an
officer approaches in a calm manner and
uses non-threatening words and actions, the
situation diffuses.
Virgin Islands police officers are not
trained in de-escalation techniques nor
taught to treat the mentally ill and homeless
with respect.
These are some of those cases:
WK<<M3)278?;=J
At least four police officers bludgeoned
a mentally disturbed man in the head — a
severe and bloody beating witnessed by
more than two dozen people on Dec. 17,
1991.
Security guards at the Pueblo
Supermarket in Four Winds Shopping
Center had restrained the man and called
police for help after the man jumped on a
food stand and began yelling incoherently.
A businesswoman who saw the beating
reported that the officers escorted the man
out of the store and hit him in the head with
billy clubs.
“They started beating him, and only in
his head. Blood was just splashing out, and
people were yelling and screaming because
they kept beating him in the head like that,
and people in the crowd yelled at police to
stop,” she told The Daily News at the time.
She asked that the newspaper not use her
name because she feared retaliation from
the police.
Another witness, a school principal on
St. Thomas, wept as she described the beat-
ing. “I’ve never witnessed such blatant vio-
lence. The sight of those batons rising and
falling will be in my memory for a long
time.” She said 20 or 30 people in the park-
ing lot formed a ring around the scene and
yelled at the police to stop hitting the man
in the head.
“When I ran up, the poor creature was
lying on the ground, his arms pinned
behind him, sort of flopped over. He was
dazed,” she said.
The woman said police stood over the
man for a while, then “threw him” into the
back of a police car and drove away.
The officers were not fully named or
prosecuted, but the victim was charged with
resisting arrest.
*6<?);=)?67)678M
Randall Nelson, 32, died in a hail of gun-
fire on Jan. 22, 1989, the same day he
sought treatment at St. Thomas Hospital for
his mental illness.
The hospital turned away Nelson, but he
returned several hours later and made a
scene. Police said Nelson, armed with two
screwdrivers, jumped on top of an officer.
Several police officers immediately shot
Nelson in the head multiple times.
The officers were aware that Nelson was
mentally ill. In the department’s official
statement, police described Nelson as a
“known mental patient.”
Seven days after the shooting, the police
investigation cleared all officers involved,
and none ever was named.
dW7@97@P)B8=I)96<?
Police shot a man four times after he
behaved irrationally in an upscale gift shop
across from Emancipation Garden on
March 6, 1996. Witnesses said the victim,
who survived the shooting but was wound-
ed in the leg, hip and abdomen, entered the
store carrying a small boy and singing and
talking loudly. When police arrived to
escort him out of the store, the man “went
berserk,” a sales clerk reported. He threw
expensive glassware at an officer, who suf-
fered head injuries. “Then they clubbed
him, and all I could hear was china and
crystal crashing,” the clerk reported.
Police opened fire, even though the store
was full of people. “When we heard the
shots,” the clerk reported, “I dived under
the table. A tourist took the little boy the
man was carrying and held him behind a
counter, away from the gunfire.”
The officer was not named or charged.
*6<?)97E7=)?;B79
On Nov. 7, 1999, a police officer shot
Alfredo Barrott to death on the Red Hook
dock. Police described Barrott as a “known
mental patient” and said he fired at the offi-
cer. The investigation found that Barrott
had fired a flare from a single-shot flare
gun.
In response to Barrott’s firing the flare,
the officer shot Barrott seven times.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said the
officer used “poor tactics,” but he declined
to prosecute him.
Ten years earlier, when Stridiron was in
private law practice, Barrott was shot in
the stomach in Stridiron’s office during a
struggle after Barrott created a disturbance.
/@79C8997@)P;KK7M
Kerby Charles, a 21-year-old man with a
history of mental illness, wandered into
Sgt. Ricky Hernandez’s back yard on St.
Croix in January 2002. The off-duty officer
said he heard someone in the yard and went
out to investigate.
The officer said he saw Charles trespass-
ing, approached him with his gun drawn
and Charles struggled with him. Hernandez
shot Charles dead.
Charles’ family is adamant that the 95-
pound man was too frail to struggle with
anyone.
Stridiron found fault with the officer’s
actions but decided that the shooting was
justified.
S<B7K799)B8=
2N@=7M
Four St. Thomas police officers were
accused in 1993, and later acquitted, of
beating a homeless man, Maurice Clark,
with a stick, throwing alcohol on his shirt
and setting him on fire. He received med-
ical treatment for burns.
The four officers were identified as
Tracy Richardson, Kent Hodge, Richard
Valasquez and Francis Brooks.
Clark said he was standing near an auto-
motive radiator shop on Harwood Highway
on June 14 when the four officers pulled up
in a vehicle and began asking him ques-
tions, then beat him and set him on fire. The
officers were charged with arson and civil
rights violations.
Once the complaint was filed, all four
were suspended with pay, but public out-
cry, and even outcry from within the Police
Department, prompted Gov. Alexander
Farrelly to instruct Acting Police
Commissioner Anthon Christian to fire the
four officers.
Although police said some of the
charges had been substantiated, a federal
jury saw it otherwise and acquitted the four.
They sued to get their jobs back and won in
arbitration. They were rehired in 1995,
under protest from Police Commissioner
Ramon Davila, and are still on the force.
Hurting
the helpless
Police victims are a roll call of V.I.’s most vulnerable

#C@;K)DQ)]])_)*?F)/6<B89
Two plainclothes officers fired seven shots at a car driven by
Michael Fahie, 26, and Almeric Hodge, 21, who were in a car,
according to the victims.
Fahie and Hodge said they had stopped at a traffic light on
Veterans Drive when two men with guns ran up to them. Fahie
and Hodge sped off, not knowing the armed men were police.
The officers gave chase, blasting away at the victims’ car as
both cars sped down St. Thomas’ busiest highway.
The officers turned on the blue flashers in their unmarked
police car, and when Fahie and Hodge saw the lights, they
stopped. The officers pulled both men out of their car and
forced them to lie on the ground. The victims said one of the
officers kicked them in the face and ribs. Both men were taken
to the police station, but no charges were filed against them and
they were released.
The Daily News obtained a copy of a victim’s citizen’s
complaint, in which Hodge named the officers as Manuel
Christian and Carlton “Blackie” Charleswell.
The department refused to officially name the officers, and
they were not charged.
#C@;K)cQ)]])_)*?F)/6<B89
Five police officers beat a 27-year-old construction worker on
the head with nightsticks. Steve Kaiser of St. Charles, Mo.,
suffered deep cuts and bruises on his head and face as a result
of the beating outside the Green House bar-restaurant on the
waterfront, in front of numerous patrons and staff. Green
House employees said Kaiser was drunk. Police said he hurled
racial slurs, struck two officers in the face with his handcuffs
and bit a third officer on the leg. Kaiser later told The Daily
News, “I don’t know. They say I did, but they thumped me so
many times with clubs I couldn’t tell you.” He was charged
with assault.
The officers were not named, and they were not charged.
583)ZQ)]])_)*?F)/6<B89
Police shot an Anna’s Retreat man in the leg when they saw
him carrying a BB gun, which they said they mistook for a 9 mm
pistol. The officers chased the suspect, later identified as Otis
Cabo, 22, who fled to Oswald Harris Court housing community,
where he leaped over a fence and then pointed the BB gun at
police. Officers fired one round, which struck Cabo in the leg.
After his arrest, officers examined the pistol and found it was
a BB gun designed to look like a 9 mm pistol.
The officers were not named, and they were not charged.
[NK3)DQ)]])_)*?F)(@<;>
A police officer shot Munir Issa Shroup in the shoulder while
showing Shroup how to use a 9 mm Glock pistol.
St. Croix Police Chief Delroy Richards would not identify the
officer, citing the “ticklish” nature of the case.
Richards said the officer had removed the magazine from the
weapon and assumed it was empty when in fact a round
remained in the chamber.
Richards said no disciplinary action would be taken against
the officer, and he was not charged.
#NJN9?)cQ)]])_)*?F)/6<B89
Sgt. Joseph Clendinen pointed his sidearm in Larry
Thompson’s face when Thompson, 29, saw a group of police
officers conducting a drug sweep at a basketball court and
asked what they were doing. Clendinen threatened Thompson
with the gun and ordered him to leave. Thompson filed a
complaint with the Police Department.
The status of the complaint is unknown. Clendinen was not
charged. He is no longer in the department.
!"#!$%)&1'("
#)*+"(,#$),-."*/,0#/,.")'"+1'/)23 $"")4,$$,#5*Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News ]
(#*")W%)(#*"
Daily News File Photo
In 1996, emergency workers aided a man who “went berserk” and was shot by police after causing a disturbance at a store on St.Thomas.
-<L67@7);=)?67)08@=7@)M7:;9;<=)M;M)?67)T=;?7M)*?8?79)*NC@7B7)(<N@?)983)?68?
C<K;:7):8=)96<<?)9<B7<=7)?<)C@<?7:?)C@<C7@?3F
+8J7)D
/67)B8=)7=?7@7M)?67)9?<@7):8@@3;=J)8)9B8KK)2<3
8=M)9;=J;=J)8=M)?8KP;=J)K<NMK3F)467=)C<K;:7
8@@;E7M)?<)79:<@?)6;B)<N?)<A)?67)9?<@7Q)?67)B8=
HL7=?)27@97@PO)8=M)?6@7L)JK899L8@7F)H/67=)?673
:KN227M)6;BQ)8=M)8KK),):<NKM)678@)L89):6;=8)8=M
:@39?8K):@896;=JFO)+<K;:7)<C7=7M)A;@7Q)7E7=
?6<NJ6)?67)9?<@7)L89)ANKK)<A)C7<CK7F)H467=)L7
678@M)?67)96<?9Q),)M;E7M)N=M7@)?67)?82K7F)#)?<N@;9?
?<<P)?67)K;??K7)2<3)?67)B8=)L89):8@@3;=J)8=M)67KM
6;B)276;=M)8):<N=?7@Q)8L83)A@<B)?67)JN=A;@7FO
— Sales clerk’s account of police shooting in a gift shop in downtown Charlotte Amalie

!"#!$%&'()*"
#&+,"*-#$&-./"+0-1#0-/"&)",()0&23 $""&4-$$-#5+ Tuesday, December 30, 200367 The Virgin Islands Daily News
#898:;&6<=&6>>6&?&+;@&*ABCD
Police officers shot Luis Parilla, 19, in the left foot and the toe
of his right foot and shot a 15-year-old in the buttocks after the
pair went on what police called “a shooting and robbing
rampage.”
Police said they stole a car, shot an unnamed man in the thigh,
shot at and robbed two people in a housing community, robbed a
Castle Burke man of his truck and gold chain and ran a scooter off
the road.
Just after midnight, the crime spree was interrupted by a
squad car that trailed the stolen truck. Shots were exchanged
between the vehicles. The pair later checked themselves in to
Luis Hospital, told the medical staff they had been shot by police
and were arrested.
The officers were not named or charged.
#898:;&<E=&6>>6&?&+;@&*ABCD
Police officers Joe Merchant, Brian Gilman and Michael
Freeman frisked a couple next to a parked car near
Christiansted. Gilman and Freeman then held the man
spread-eagle on their police car and hit him on the head with a
nightstick while Merchant forced the woman into an abandoned
building nearby. There, he forced her to perform oral sex.
Merchant was charged and convicted of rape and oppression,
served three years and is out on parole. Gilman received a deal
from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and was sentenced to two
years probation. Freeman was not charged. The officers no
longer are on the department payroll.
.BFGH2GA&I=&6>>6&?&+;@&*ABCD
A police officer shot and killed Peter Shirlery, who had a knife
in his hand. Police said Shirlery had stabbed a mother and
daughter just before the shooting.
Police also said that as the officer approached, Shirlery told
him, “You’re going to have to kill me tonight.”
Police Chief Delroy Richards said the officer ordered Shirlery
to drop the knife, “but he continued to advance.” The officer
was not named or charged.
!GJGH2GA&6E=&6>>6&?&+;@&0KBHL:
Four police officers repeatedly clubbed a mentally disturbed
man in the head as 20 to 30 onlookers begged them to stop.
The victim had been behaving strangely at Four Winds Shopping
Center. One of the witnesses, a businesswoman, reported that
the officers escorted the man out of a store and started hitting
him with billy clubs. “They started beating him, and only in his
head. Blood was just splashing out, and people were yelling and
screaming because they kept beating him in the head like that,”
she told The Daily News. The police spokesman said that the
victim resisted arrest. The spokesman said officers and the
victim were treated for cuts and abrasions.
The spokesman identified the arresting officers as G. Samuel
and R. Dessout. He would not provide their full names or name
the other officers.
None of the officers was prosecuted.
MLN8LA3&E=&6>><&?&+;@&0KBHL:
Delvin “Marcus” Richards, 26, was shot and killed during an
arrest. A police spokesman said he did not know what crime the
man had committed, other than “it had to be a felony.” The
victim verbally threatened the officer, police said.
Days later police still were unable to tell The Daily News why
Richards, who was unarmed, was shot.
The department delayed its internal probe, saying the
investigators did not want to pressure the officer.
The shooting at Barbel Plaza was witnessed by a dozen
people.
Only one came forward but asked not to be identified out of
fear of retaliation by police.
That witness told The Daily News that the shooting was
unprovoked and that the officer came out of his car pointing a
pistol at Richards, who had been riding a bicycle. Richards “just
touched” the officer, who immediately shot and killed him, the
witness said.
*#+"&O%&*#+"
See *#+"&O%&*#+", next page
P4KGAG&;KG
:8:QGJ;&QB:G:
NB&CHHGRCL;G
;KAGL;&;B&;KG
BSSCJGA&LNR&NB
;KAGL;&;B&B;KGA:=
;KG&KLAH
AG:8T;CN9&SABH
SLCTCN9&;B
LQQAGKGNR&KCH
RBG:&NB;&U8:;CS3
;KG&8:G&BS
RGLRT3&SBAJG&;B
RB&:B@V
,L9G&<
Shot in the back
running away,
shot in the hand
surrendering
(
n March 1, shortly after 1:30 in the
morning, Elijah Jackson was hanging
out with friends deep in the shadows
behind a long-vacant movie theater in
Christiansted’s derelict Times Square.
There was some beer. There might have been
some ganja. There might have been some gam-
bling — craps, most likely.
Whatever was going on paled in comparison
to what happened when a big car arrived on the
scene.
“All of a sudden they rolls up on us, and
someone yells, ‘Come here!’” Jackson said.
Jackson and his friends were blinded by the
car’s high beams. All they could see were head-
lights.
“We didn’t know they were police,” he said.
“They didn’t have any police lights on, just high
beams. Then I heard a shotgun rack,” the sound
of someone pumping the gun in preparation to
shoot.
Jackson, 20, knew Times Square was one of
the most dangerous spots on St. Croix, and he
knew a number of late-night assaults and rob-
beries had occurred there.
When he heard the shotgun, he was sure the
people in the car were robbers.
“I was so scared. I didn’t know they were
police, so I took off running,” he said. He had no
weapon, nothing in his hands.
Jackson did not make it far before one of the
officers shot him in the back with the shotgun.
The pellets struck Jackson in the buttocks and
shoulders, but he was so terrified he kept on
running.
“I thought I was gonna die,” he said. “It hurt
like hell.”
The young man ran to the abandoned Avis
building and dived inside. He hoped his attack-
ers would run on by.
“All of a sudden, a cop comes walking in, and
I remember thinking that I was so glad it was the
police and not some killers,” he said.
Jackson got off the ground and walked
toward the officer with his hands raised.
“Then he shoots me in the hand, and I fall
back down,” Jackson said.
“I got shot in the back running away, and shot
in the hand surrendering.”
In the hospital, Jackson was interviewed by
an investigator from the Police Department’s
Internal Affairs Bureau. He asked the young
man what happened, and Jackson told him the
details.
No one, including the Internal Affairs detec-
tive, ever advised Jackson of his Miranda rights.
No one from the Police Department ever
talked to Jackson or his family again.
No one ever said they were sorry Jackson was
shot.
No one has charged Jackson with committing
a crime that night.
“I’m very angry,” Jackson said. “I didn’t do
nothing but run away, but we didn’t know they
were police. They never said they were police.”
Three days after the shooting, Acting Deputy
Police Chief Melbourne Adams announced that
an unnamed officer shot Jackson because
Jackson was “fleeing a possible crime scene.”
The officers were dispatched to Times Square
to investigate a possible burglary, Adams said.
Jackson and his friends were acting suspicious-
ly, and one of the officers fired two shots as
Jackson ran away.
Jackson has been told his back will heal, but
he is more concerned about his hand.
“I can’t put any pressure on it. I can’t do any-
thing with it. I can’t lean on it or hold anything
that’s too heavy, or it hurts real bad,” he said.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron has closed
the case, finding no reason to prosecute the offi-
cer who shot Jackson. Stridiron did not issue a
report giving his justification for his decision.
The police commissioner will not release the
officer’s name because the officer has not been
charged with a crime.

!"#!$%&'()*"
#&+,"*-#$&-./"+0-1#0-/"&)",()0&23 $""&4-$$-#5+Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News 66
'7289:83&;<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A police officer shot a man in the thigh after the man threw
rocks at him at Coki Point. One rock hit the officer’s foot and
another struck his head. The officer said he shot the victim to
stop the rock attack. The victim was charged with assaulting the
officer, but he refused to give his name to police and was
booked as John Doe.
5:8FB&6G<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A police officer shot and killed a man who was wielding a
machete and terrorizing a Smith Bay family. Police said the
family discovered the man hiding on their back porch and called
police. The officer shot the man as he crashed through a
window brandishing the machete. Several days later, the victim
was identified as Grenada native Cuthbert Aubrey de Cotau.
5:3&H<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
Police officers shot a man during a foot chase after a high-
speed vehicle pursuit. Garfield Samuels, 19, had been driving a
stolen car, which he crashed into a guard rail near the Nadir
lagoon. Samuels jumped out and took off running, and officers
ran after him. Police said he “turned suddenly” toward them,
and one of the officers shot him between the waist and the hip.
Police did not find a weapon on Samuels.
I9J7&6K<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A police officer shot Michael Rhymer, an off-duty prison
guard, near Wheatley Center, but police records and newspaper
archives provide no details about what led to the shooting. The
officer shot Rhymer in both legs and in the stomach. Rhymer
recovered.
#9L9E@&>M<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A police officer shot a man in the hand at Barbel Plaza.
Witnesses said the man was on a shooting spree and
exchanged fire with police in the adjacent Paul M. Pearson
Gardens housing community before fleeing to the shopping
center. Several days later, police released the name of the man,
Joseph Daniel, but did not release the name of the officer.
The officer was not charged.
+7N@7D278&6G<&6==>&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A police officer shot Edward St. Aimee of Anna’s Retreat in
the foot. The officer had been called to mediate a dispute
between St. Aimee and his neighbor. St. Aimee’s dog
approached the officer. St. Aimee told the officer that his dog
did not bite, but the officer pulled his pistol and fired at the dog.
One of the rounds struck St. Aimee in the foot. “It was like the
Wild West,” St. Aimee said later.
'7289:83&6M<&6==O&?&+@A&0BCD:E
A group of police officers armed with batons severely beat
Angel Rivera and his cousin, Jose Diaz, after an argument over
parking. A witness described it as “a Rodney King beating.”
Another witness videotaped the assault, but police confiscated
his camera. When the witness retrieved the video camera from
the police station, the tape was missing. Diaz was charged with
assault.
I9J7&6G<&6==O&?&+@A&0BCD:E
Four police officers were accused of beating a homeless man
with a stick, throwing alcohol on his shirt and setting him on fire
with a lighter. He suffered burns on his chest. The four officers
were identified as Francis Brooks, Kent Hodge, Tracy
Richardson and Richard Valasquez. They were charged with
arson and civil rights violations and were acquitted. Four years
earlier, in October 1989, Brooks and Hodge were among five
officers disciplined for shooting and wounded a 19-year-old
woman.
*#+"&P%&*#+"
See *#+"&P%&*#+", next page
Times Square in Christiansted, sees moderate activity until dusk, but at night it is a wasteland of decaying buildings where prostitutes,
vagrants and petty thieves hang out. It was here that police shot and wounded Elijah Jackson, who was unarmed and fleeing.
Taking the officer’s word
"
lijah Jackson is not the only
person who has been shot by
police while running away.
At 8:55 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2001, police
officers pulled up next to a car parked
near La Loma Grocery in Estate Mon
Bijou, St. Croix.
To their surprise, Michael Herbert
jumped out of the car and started
running away. He reached a fence,
scaled it and took off.
Officer Uston Cornelius drew his gun
and shot Herbert in the back. The bullet
paralyzed the 27-year-old man, who now
lives with his sister in Florida.
Herbert will be in a wheelchair for the
rest of his life.
He never was charged with a crime.
Neither was Cornelius.
Cornelius said he saw a gun in
Herbert’s hand.
Another police officer and two
bystanders said they did not see a gun.
Herbert says he did not have a
weapon.
V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron
said he believed Cornelius and believed
Herbert was turning toward the officer
when Cornelius fired.
Herbert says he has taken the only
recourse left for him: He has filed a
lawsuit against Cornelius.

!"#"$%&'()&'**(&+&,%-&./012$
A police officer shot and wounded a man after a high-speed
chase that ended in Contant when the stolen car the victim was
driving crashed into another car and knocked it into a police car.
The officer and driver exchanged gunfire. The youth was shot in
the left shoulder. Police also arrested a passenger in the stolen
car, Fitzroy Gregory, 23, of Estate Diamond Ruby. Gregory was
charged with first-degree assault. Officials said he fired at
officers.
Neither the driver nor the officer was named. The officer was
not charged.
34%0567&8)&'**(&+&,%-&./012$
An off-duty officer shot two juvenile bystanders at Barbel
Plaza. Police said the officer got into an argument with a man,
who shot the officer in the back. The officer shot at the man but
struck and wounded two youths who were not involved. The
boys never were named. The officer’s assailant escaped. Police
later said they were not sure whether the officer or his assailant
shot the boys.
The department would not name the officer, and he was not
charged.
34%0567&*)&'**(&+&,%-&./012$
An off-duty officer shot Ray Buncome, 23, in the leg. The
shooting occurred on the entrance road to King Airport, near
Emerald Beach Resort. The victim said he did not know why the
officer shot him. Buncome had to sit on the curb and wait more
than 20 minutes for an ambulance.
Police said later that they were not sure why Buncome was
shot. Buncome’s father, who later arrived at the scene, also said
he did not know why police shot his son.
Days after the shooting, police spokesman Lt. Bruce Hamlin
said the department still did not know why Buncome was shot,
and he added that the department was “deeply concerned”
about the shooting.
Hamlin promised to “leave no stone unturned” in the post-
shooting investigation.
The department never disclosed the results of the
investigation and did not name the officer.
!97:;&<=)&'**>&+&,%-&./012$
A police officer shot and wounded a murder suspect who
opened fire on officers trying to arrest him. Garnett Alison
Hodge, 23, was shot three times in the arms and leg as officers
tried to arrest him at his grandfather’s house in Estate Solberg.
Hodge was charged with murdering 17-year-old Halbert Bastian
on Feb. 21, 1994, at Tutu Hi-Rise. Hodge fired on the arresting
officers with a Tec-9 semi-automatic pistol. He was shot by
police after his weapon jammed.
The officer was not named and was not charged.
?2@&(A)&'**>&+&,%-&./012$
Off-duty officer Anthony Hunt shot and killed Spencer Powell
in a Frenchtown bar in front of Powell’s 6-year-old son. Powell
was in a fight with another man in the bar, and Hunt fired when
Powell wielded a bar stool, according to witnesses. Powell was
shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at St. Thomas
Hospital.
Hunt was not charged. He remained on the force and now is
a sergeant.
B6461567&'=)&'**>&+&,%-&./012$
A police SWAT team officer killed Raquebo Smith, 18, with a
single round while Smith was on a shooting rampage in a
housing community. Smith was firing at police officers and
civilians when the SWAT officer shot him. Police recovered a
.38-caliber revolver and a substantial quantity of ammunition.
The officer was not named and was not charged.
C2D"27@&<*)&'**8&+&,%-&E70:F
An off-duty police officer shot a youth three times as he and
two other juveniles attempted to rob a bar in Peter’s Rest. The
robbery attempt was foiled by the officer, who was drinking in
the bar when the youths entered. One youth held a gun to the
officer’s throat, but the officer pulled his pistol, identified himself
as a police officer and shot the youth.
The officer was not named and was cleared of any wrongdoing.
BG!BHI&J3KEG
!&,LGEM!H&MNOG,.MP!.MOG&KGL3K.&5@ HGG&QMHHM!?, Tuesday, December 30, 2003'< The Virgin Islands Daily News
E!,G&RI&E!,G
See E!,G&RI&E!,G, next page
Officers blast away
at robbery suspect –
but it’s the wrong man
C
ames Tomeau was standing on Veterans
Drive near Western Cemetery on the
morning of Nov. 17, 1998, waiting for a
bus to take him to Sub Base.
One minute he was thinking about the electric
bill he was on his way to pay at the V.I. Water
and Power Authority office.
The next minute he was trying to dodge bul-
lets.
Virgin Islands police were shooting at him.
Tomeau had no idea why.
Later he learned that he bore some resem-
blance to an armed robbery suspect.
To the police officers, that was reason enough
to shoot.
Tomeau said the officers got out of their car
and opened fire on him without even asking him
for identification.
“They shot first and never even bother to ask
any questions,” he said. “Nobody said ‘freeze’
or anything. They just started shooting. I’m
going down the road to pay bills, and they just
start firing. The two officers weren’t in uniform.
So what the hell am I gonna do? I start running.”
He did not make it far. A 9 mm slug tore into
his side, and Tomeau toppled to the ground.
The police charged him with possession of an
unlicensed firearm — but no gun was found.
The police charged him with armed robbery
— but he had committed no crime.
Tomeau spent weeks in the hospital and then
months in jail before he was able to secure his
release.
The criminal charges were not dropped offi-
cially until years later, when eyewitnesses to the
robbery cleared him.
“They bring in these two old ladies. They
take one look at me, and they both say they got
the wrong man,” Tomeau said.
The government paid his medical bills, which
were expensive, but the bullet still lodged in his
hip keeps him angry about what happened that
day.
“The bullet is still in me,” Tomeau said. “I
can tell when it’s gonna rain because it hurts. I
can still feel it.”
“They need better training,” he said. “They
need to not do this anymore.”
!5$6D46
0S&%72:D:D#
2DT
T:$4:9;:D6
T6S:D6$
O-M-&90;:46
97046T"76-
L2#6&<<

!"#$%&$'()*(+)),(-(./0(1234&5
A police officer shot Marlon Julian, then in his 20s, five times
during a traffic stop on lower Kronprindsens Gade. Police said
Julian pulled a chrome 9mm pistol on the officer. Witnesses
identified Julian as the suspect in a shots-fired incident on
Kronprindsens Gade earlier that day.
The officer who shot Julian was a plainclothes detective who
responded to a patrol officer’s call for backup. The detective
was not named or charged.
6&$72(++*(+)),(-(./0(1234&5
A police sergeant accidentally discharged a 12-gauge shotgun
into the ceiling of the American Yacht Harbor building in Red
Hook while running up the stairs as he investigated a report that
two men had jumped off the St. John ferry. Police thought they
might be illegal aliens or drug smugglers and responded quickly.
The sergeant later apologized to the crowd that had gathered,
saying that the shotgun malfunctioned and adding: “It is very
dangerous to take a loaded shotgun into any crowded area.”
The two men the police were seeking turned out to be two
intoxicated passengers who leaped into the water in high spirits
as the ferry approached the Red Hook ferry dock.
8%9"(+:*(+)),(-(./0(;$3<=
Off-duty officer Ronald Hatcher shot a 17-year-old boy on
Queen Cross Street at 10:30 p.m. The shooting was not
reported to the department until the next morning, after the
youth had been treated at Luis Hospital. He and several friends
said they were approached by a man who told them to stop or
he would shoot them. The youths said the man was not in
uniform and they did not know he was a police officer, so they
scattered. The officer fired several shots, one of which struck
the 17-year-old in the right shoulder. The officer left the scene,
and the youth passed out. He did not regain consciousness for
several hours. The victim then walked to his home, and his
mother drove him to the hospital.
Hatcher, who then was president of the St. Croix police
union, first denied any knowledge of the shooting. He later said
he suspected the youth of burglary.
Hatcher was not charged and remains on the police force.
8%9"(>,*(+)),(-(./0(;$3<=
An off-duty officer who police said was trying to break up a bar
fight shot Charles Luke, 27, four times. Luke pulled a .25-caliber
pistol. The officer issued repeated warnings that he would shoot
if Luke did not drop the gun. The officer then shot Luke three
times in the chest and once in the arm. While Luke was at the
hospital, Troy Nesbitt, 21, sought treatment for a gunshot
wound. Police said Nesbitt was shot by Luke during the fracas.
?%@%5/(+,*(+)),(-(./0(;$3<=
A police officer shot a man during what the officer called a
“coerced drug deal.” Police investigated but were unable to
determine what had happened. The victim was not named. Police
received conflicting reports about the shooting, which involved a
bag of crack cocaine, the son of a sitting senator and an off-duty
Corrections Bureau officer, who was relieved of his weapon after
allegations that he shot at a car containing two men.
6&$72(A*(+))A(-(./0(1234&5
Police officers shot a man four times after he started
throwing expensive glassware in an upscale gift shop next to
Emancipation Garden. Witnesses said the victim, who survived
the shooting, entered the store holding a small child and acted
“berserk.” The child was not injured.
The department did not name the officers, and they were not
charged.
6&$72(>B*(+))A(-(./0(1234&5
Police shot a juvenile in the buttocks while he and 15 others
in upper Hospital Ground were engaged in what they called
target practice. Police said the victim pointed his weapon at
officers who were advancing on the illegal shooting. The youth
survived. A force of 30 police officers, backed by two private
helicopters and police dogs, converged on the victim.
charged.
CD?CEF(!GH;D
?(.ID;J?E(JKLD.1JM?1JLD(HDIGH1(#' EDD(NJEEJ?6.Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News +O
;?.D(PF(;?.D
See ;?.D(PF(;?.D, next page
Daily News Photo by SEAN McCOY
James Tomeau was waiting at this bus stop in 1998 when V.I. police officers, who incorrectly identified him as an armed-robbery
suspect, opened fire on him.
Q12"(#%RR"/(<5(5/<RR(<9(4"0
J(7&9(/"RR(S2"9(</T5(@399&($&<9(#"7&%5"(</(2%$/50
J(7&9(5/<RR(U""R(</0V
— Police shooting victim James Tomeau
Q?(W3R<7"(3UU<7"$(4&'(93/(5"<X"(&9(%9&$4"Y*
939Y&9@"$3%5(5%5W"7/(#'(5233/<9@(2<4(Y"&Y0V
I&@"(>

!"#$%&'()&*++,&-&./0&1%23"4
Police officers shot a 26-year-old man who was beating
another man with a pipe. The victim refused to drop the pipe,
and the officers said they shot him because they feared he
would kill the other man. The department did not name the
officers, indicating they were not prosecuted.
5678&*9)&*++,&-&./0&:#2;<
An off-duty police officer shot a man in the foot outside a
Christiansted bar at 2 a.m. Police said the officer, a woman who
had been eating in the bar, attempted to eject three drunken
patrons from the bar, but they approached her “in a threatening
manner” and she fired her gun several times, striking one man
in the foot.
Neither the officer nor the victim was named, and the officer
was not charged.
5"76"#=&')&*++>&-&./0&:#2;<
A police officer shot and killed Jahkeema Stevens, 20, during
a traffic stop on St. Croix. Police said the officer told Stevens his
car would be impounded because there were inconsistencies
between the license plate and registration. Stevens stepped on
the accelerator and, police said, aimed his car at the officer. The
officer drew his gun and shot Stevens in the face, killing him
instantly, and his vehicle went out of control and struck two
parked cars and a building before coming to a stop. The victim’s
mother said the car was her son’s and there were no
inconsistencies in the registration.
St. Croix Police Chief Elton Lewis, now the police
commissioner, refused to disclose the nature of the
inconsistencies or to name the officer. Lewis did say the officer
was a five-year veteran of the department.
56?=&'>)&*++>&-&./0&1%23"4
Three V.I. Housing Authority police officers were accused of
using deadly force to threaten several 14-year-olds. The officers
suspected the boys of breaking the rear window of their police
car. The boys said the officers drove them to a remote area and
placed their pistols to the boys’ heads and in their mouths. One
of the officers fired a shot into the bush and told them that was
what he felt like doing to them, the boys said. One officer was
suspended for using improper tactics, and the other two
received reprimands. They were never named.
@$/2A8#&'')&*++>&-&./0&:#2;<
Police officers shot and killed Clyde Archer, 33, near a shanty
in Estate Whim. The officers said Archer advanced on them with
a machete when they sought to question him about the
bludgeoning of a man with a metal pipe. A medical examiner said
Archer bled to death after the bullet severed an artery in his leg.
prosecuted.
B2C83A8#&*>)&*++>&-&./0&:#2;<
An off-duty officer shot a 16-year-old boy in the stomach at
2:30 a.m. Police said the officer broke up a fight and escorted
several people outside the bar. Police said a group of people
then “jumped” the officer, who pulled his pistol and fired the
round that struck the boy. The boy’s brother drove him to the
hospital, but en route, their car struck a tree. The brother was
thrown from the car and suffered major head injuries. He
survived the accident. Both boys then were taken to the hospital
by ambulance. Neither the youths nor the officer was named,
and police did not identify the bar.
D8$83A8#&E)&*++>&-&./0&1%23"4
An officer shot a 16-year-old high school student on campus
at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, in front of other students.
Police said the victim was armed with a butcher knife. Several
students said the teen dropped the knife when the officer
ordered him to, but the officer went ahead and shot him. One
witness told The Daily News, “He dropped the knife, and when
he dropped the knife, he shot him.” The juvenile was arrested in
the hospital while recovering from a gunshot wound in his neck.
The department did not name the officer, and he was not
prosecuted.
DFGDHI&J@K:F
G&.LF:MGH&MBNF.1MOG1MNF&KFL@K1&A= HFF&PMHHMG!. Tuesday, December 30, 2003*( The Virgin Islands Daily News
:G.F&QI&:G.F
See :G.F&QI&:G.F, next page
Daily News Photo by SEAN McCOY
Alva Lockhart’s family put up a billboard tribute next to his home on Raphune Hill on St. Thomas.
RMS&/%8=T#8&U2;7U&/2&/%8&U67&#;U%/&26/&2S&/%8&A2<)&/%8=T#8&%2##;A?=&/#";78V0&
1%8=&788V&/2&?8"#70W
L"U84&''X'Y
RG4&2SS;$8#4&Z8#8&/"?[;7U&/2&/%8&32/%8#&"7V&2/%8#
S"3;?=&383A8#4)&/%8&4648$/&$"38&6&/%8&4/";#4
Z;/%&Z%"/&"8"#8V&/2&A8&"&?27UXA"##8?&%"7VU67
;7&%;4&%"7V0&]8&Z"4&;74/#6$/8V&/2&6/&V2Z7&/%8
Z8"27&32#8&/%"7&27$80&]8&V;V&72/&$23?=0W
— from a V.I. Police Department press release

!"#$%&$'()*+(),,-(.(/01(2345&6
Off-duty police officer Dennis Vanterpool shot and killed
Territorial Court Marshal Randy Stephens because he thought
the marshal was a fleeing suspect. Stephens was in disguise,
wearing fake dreadlocks as he and other marshals attempted to
serve an extradition warrant on a man wanted in New Jersey on
burglary and drug charges. The marshals got into a gun battle
with the suspect. Vanterpool said he spotted Stephens firing a
gun and mistook him for a suspect. Vanterpool, who in 1989
was disciplined along with four other officers for shooting a 19-
year-old unarmed woman, drew a gun and killed Stephens. An
officer at the scene was advised by an unnamed civilian at the
shooting scene that Vanterpool might have been drinking. The
officer informally assessed Vanterpool’s sobriety and concluded
he had not been drinking. The officer did not administer a blood-
alcohol test. Attorney General Julio Brady reviewed the shooting
and said it was unfortunate but justified.
Vanterpool is now a police sergeant.
78$9:(;<+(),,-(.(/01(2345&6
Police officers shot a 17-year-old in the chest as he drove a
stolen car through a police checkpoint at Four Corners.
Witnesses estimated the boy’s speed at 60 mph when he ran
the roadblock. Officers opened fire on the driver, and one round
struck the boy in the chest. The youth managed to stop the car
without crashing it or injuring others. The youth later said he did
not halt at the checkpoint because the car was stolen.
Police did not name the victim or the officers. No officers
were charged. The victim was not charged.
7%=%60(;;+(),,-(.(/01(>$49?
A police officer shot and killed Conrad Hendricks, 26, who
was brandishing a machete. Hendricks’ girlfriend had called
police to report a domestic disturbance and ask for help.
Hendricks fled on foot, but the officer followed him and shot
him dead. The department did not name the officer, and he was
not prosecuted.
@4A"5#"$()B+(),,-(.(/01(2345&6
A police officer shot James Tomeau, 20, in the hip while he
was standing at a bus stop on Veterans Drive. Tomeau, who was
unarmed and was waiting for a bus to Sub Base, reported that
plainclothes officers approached him and started shooting at him.
The officers later said they were looking for a robbery suspect and
thought Tomeau looked like the person they sought. In court,
witnesses to the robbery cleared Tomeau of any connection to
the robbery and of any wrongdoing. The department did not
name the officers, and they were not prosecuted.
@4A"5#"$(B+(),,,(.(/01(2345&6
A police officer shot and killed Alfredo Barrott, whom police
described as a “known mental patient.” The officer, whom
police refuse to name, fired seven bullets into Barrott after
Barrott fired a flare gun at the officer on the Red Hook ferry
dock. Attorney General Iver Stridiron rebuked the officer for
using “poor tactics” but did not prosecute him. Barrott was a
victim of police use of deadly force 10 years earlier, in 1989,
when he was shot in the stomach by a police officer in
Stridiron’s private law office.
@4A"5#"$(,+(),,,(.(/01(>$49?
Police Officer Benjamin Lawrence fired several shots at a
vehicle that ran a roadblock. No further details are available in
police records or newspaper archives.
78$9:(;<+(;CCC(.(/01(>$49?
An off-duty officer pulled his pistol and pointed it in the face
of Kevin Sealey, 27, then hit him several times. Sealey reported
the assault. The department did not name the officer, and he
was not prosecuted.
D"E"5#"$()-+(;CCC(.(/01(>$49?
An off-duty officer shot and killed James Nesbitt Jr., 25, at a
bar with one shot to Nesbitt’s chest. Police said Nesbitt left the
bar after an argument with a woman, went to his car and
returned with a sword. He cut the officer’s hand, and the officer
shot him. The department did not name the officer, and he was
not prosecuted.
DF7DGH(!IJ>F
7(/KF>L7G(L@MF/2LN72LMF(JFKIJ2(#' GFF(OLGGL7P/Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News )Q
>7/F(RH(>7/F
See >7/F(RH(>7/F, next page
Hidden truth
behind
fatal consequence
Months after fatal shooting, police have not answered
questions about what ‘appeared to be
a long-barrel handgun’ in the victim’s hand
K
olice say an officer shot and killed
Alva Lockhart because Lockhart had
something in his hand that looked like
a long-barreled pistol.
They never have said whether the 41-year-
old auto mechanic actually had a weapon.
The events that cost Lockhart his life start-
ed even before police officers, whom Police
Commissioner Elton Lewis will not identify,
responded to a shots-fired call on Raphune
Hill on St. Thomas.
The officers arrived at Lockhart’s home just
after 10 p.m. on Aug. 12 and found the family
highly upset but reluctant to tell the officers
anything. They said everything was OK and
insisted that no one in the house had called
911.
The officers observed, however, that a
woman appeared to be bleeding from a head
injury, “indicating that a possible domestic
incident had occurred,” according to a Virgin
Islands Police Department press release issued
the next day.
Dorothy Lockhart, Alva’s mother, then told
the officers that her son had fired several shots
in the house and that Alva’s wife called the
police and told them her husband had shot at
her, forcing her to flee from the house.
“As officers were talking to the mother and
other family members, the suspect came up
the stairs with what appeared to be a long-bar-
rel handgun in his hand,” the police press
release said. “He was instructed to put down
the weapon more than once. He did not com-
ply. Instead he raised the gun and pointed at a
police officer. The officer, based on training
and experience, in turn fired two shots, one
striking the suspect in the chest area.”
Lockhart ran back down the stairs and “bar-
ricaded himself” in an apartment below the
main part of the house, the press release said.
Additional officers and medical personnel
arrived and entered the apartment, where they
found Lockhart “slumped over,” the press
release said.
Alva Lockhart died in an ambulance en
route to Schneider Hospital, a quarter-mile
from his home.
The police press release did not say, and
police will not disclose, what Lockhart was
carrying or whether the officers found a
firearm at Lockhart’s home. After the shoot-
ing, Lockhart’s brother said the police press
release was “not totally accurate.” He declined
to comment further.
Lockhart’s surviving family declined to
comment for this story.
The Police Department will not identify the
officer who shot Lockhart, saying the investi-
gation is still in progress.
SK4:9E"(T""U(8$48"$
0$&9T9T=(4T(34V(04(U"&:
V903(8"48:"(9T(
&(T4TWE4TX$4T0&094T&:
V&'(03&0(U"W"6E&:&0"6
03"(8$4#:"51Y
K&="(;*

!"#$%&'()&'**+&,&-./&012345
Housing Authority Police officers held their pistols against the
heads of several children while searching an apartment.
According to the children’s mother, who reported the incident to
The Daily News, the officers were said to have grabbed the
children and used them as human shields while conducting the
search. The officers later said they searched the wrong
apartment. The children were not identified. The department did
not name the officers, and they were not prosecuted.
6789&:)&'**+&,&-./&;#2$<
Police shot and killed Jessie Rogers in his bedroom after he
refused to drop a kitchen knife he had used to threaten his
mother. She called police, and when they arrived, Rogers came
at them with the knife, police said. The department did not
name the officers, and they were not prosecuted.
6789&=)&'**+&,&-./&012345
Off-duty officer Lennox Lettsome fired his gun at a carload of
armed robbery suspects who approached him while he was
washing his car at a commercial car wash in downtown
Charlotte Amalie. The robbers and Lettsome exchanged fire,
and Lettsome was shot by the suspects. The round entered his
neck and exited his back. Lettsome was not charged, and he
recovered and remains on the force.
-9".93>9#&'?)&'**+&,&-./&;#2$<
A police officer shot and killed David Eric Medina Diaz, who
was unarmed, in Kingshill Cemetery after chasing him from
Estate La Reine. The officer said that Diaz lunged at him while
his hands were obscured by a jacket and that he thought he
might have had a weapon. Attorney General Iver Stridiron said
the fatal shooting was justified. The same officer is now under
investigation after a St. Croix man said the officer shot at him
and beat him because he accidentally hit the officer’s wife’s
vehicle with his van.
-9".93>9#&'@)&'**+&,&-./&;#2$<
Police Officer Uston Cornelius shot and paralyzed Michael
Herbert, 27, who ran from officers near La Loma Grocery in
Estate Mon Bijou.
Cornelius drew his gun and shot Herbert in the back. The
bullet paralyzed Herbert, who never was charged with a crime.
An officer who was at the scene said Herbert was armed, but
other officers who were there said they did not see a weapon.
None was recovered. Cornelius was not prosecuted. He
remains on the force. Cornelius’ name was made public only
because Herbert filed a lawsuit.
64874#A&'=)&'**'&,&-./&;#2$<
Sgt. Ricky Hernandez, 40, a 14-year police veteran, shot and
killed Kerby Charles, a 21-year-old mentally ill man who had
wandered into Hernandez’s back yard. The officer said he
approached Charles with his gun drawn and a struggle ensued,
which Charles’ family disputes. Attorney General Iver Stridiron
decided not to prosecute, saying the shooting was justified.
Hernandez remains a sergeant on the police force.
64874#A&'B)&'**'&,&-./&012345
A police officer shot Jamil Isaac, 21, in the shoulder during a
scuffle that developed during a traffic stop in Bovoni. Police said
the officer stopped Isaac because his windows were too dark and
his license plate was obscured. During the stop, the officer saw a
pistol on the floor behind the driver’s seat. A scuffle ensued, they
said, and Isaac was shot, even though he was unarmed. Police
later charged Isaac with “constructive possession of an
unlicensed firearm,” a charge that means the weapon was near
Isaac, though not necessarily on his person or in his hand.
The officer was not named or prosecuted.
CD!CEF&GHI;D
!&-JD;K!E&KLMD-0KN!0KMD&IDJHI0&>A EDD&OKEEK!P- Tuesday, December 30, 2003+( The Virgin Islands Daily News
;!-D&QF&;!-D
See ;!-D&QF&;!-D, next page
K8&.19&M$#R$8
K5%48S5)&28%A
5$<&2T&+**
U4595&2T
S94S%A&T2#U9
14V9&R289&.2
.#$4%/&H8%A&.W2
14V9&%9S&.2
X4$%&.$39/
J4R95&:(Y:Z
Communities
and authorities elsewhere
do not tolerate police
abuse of deadly force
D
lsewhere under the U.S. flag, cases of
police use of deadly force have drawn
national attention to the official
response and the community response.
These are three of those cases:
I2S89A&[$8R
On March 3, 1991, four white Los Angeles
police officers beat Rodney King, a black man
who had committed a traffic violation.
A bystander videotaped the brutal beating,
and within hours, television stations around
the world were broadcasting the scene.
The officers were charged with felony
assault, but a mostly white jury acquitted them
on April 29, 1992.
Los Angeles erupted in the worst riots in
U.S. history — 53 people were killed, more
than 2,000 were injured, more than 10,000
people were arrested and 1,000 buildings were
burned to the ground.
The rioting cost the City of Los Angeles an
estimated $1 billion.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Los
Angeles charged the officers with violating
King’s civil rights.
Two of the four officers were convicted in
federal court and sentenced to 30 months in
federal prison.
King sued the LAPD and won $3.8 million.
The case opened discussion nationwide
about police brutality and excessive force.
!34S27&C$4%%2
Four New York City police officers who
were questioning people on Feb. 4, 1999,
about a rape suspect knocked on the apartment
door of Amadou Diallo, 22, a native of
Guinea.
When Diallo opened the door and saw the
officers, he reached inside his jacket pocket
for his wallet, apparently to show his ID.
The officers, who later said they believed
Diallo was reaching for a weapon, opened
fire. They shot 41 rounds and hit him 19 times.
He died on the spot.
The outcry was immediate. New York
already was reeling from the police torture of
Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, a month
earlier. The Diallo shooting touched off a
series of events:
Protesters held daily demonstrations for
months.
The four officers were tried, and after 23
hours of deliberations, the jury acquitted them
on Feb. 25, 2000.
The verdict sparked further community
protests.
African-American and Latino members of
the New York Senate threatened to boycott
the next Legislature session to protest the fail-
ure to pass bills to combat police brutality.
The NYPD disbanded the controversial
Street Crime Unit, in which the four officers
served.
Diallo’s parents sued New York City for
$81 million.
;47&01$&Q$U1&0#48
San Jose Police Officer Chad Marshall shot
and killed Cau Thi Bich Tran, a 25-year-old
Vietnamese immigrant, in her home on July
13, 2003.
Tran had called 911 for help because she
had locked herself out of her bedroom, and her
toddler was inside.
When Officer Marshall arrived, Tran was in
the process of trying to jimmy the lock with a
vegetable peeler. She turned to him and ges-
tured at the lock with the kitchen implement.
Marshall mistook that as a threat and shot the
mother of two through the heart.
Tran died instantly.
The fatal shooting outraged the Vietnamese
community in California and across the coun-
try, prompting marches and demonstrations in
several cities.
Ten days after the killing, the FBI announced
that it was opening a civil rights investigation.
The San Jose Police Department launched a
widespread and intense public relations cam-
paign featuring announcements in Vietnamese
expressing condolences to the family.
;$8U$884.$&5122.$8R5
Since 1995, officers in the Cincinnati Police
Department have shot and killed 15 African-
American men.
The killings sparked frequent riots in the
city of 330,000 people, prompting local offi-
cials to open investigations, declare a state of
emergency and plead for calm.
The FBI announced it was opening civil
rights investigations.
The White House got involved. President
Bush released a statement in April 2001 call-
ing on Attorney General John Ashcroft to
make sure the Bush administration was “pro-
viding the necessary assistance to help calm
and resolve the situation.”

!"#$%&'()&'**'&+&,-.&/#0$1
Police Officer Alfredo Cruz shot and killed Terrance
Heywood, who was nude and unarmed, on Dorsch Beach in
southern Frederiksted. Heywood had been swimming at the
beach, and a tourist called police. Heywood emerged from
the water nude and unarmed. Cruz said Heywood advanced
on him, and he shot Heywood five times. Public
demonstrations demanded prosecution of the officer, but
Attorney General Iver Stridiron decided not to charge Cruz,
leading to further public outcry and protests.
Cruz remains on the force.
23453#6&78)&'**9&+&,-.&:;0<3=
A police officer shot and killed a man who got into their
patrol car, which they had left unlocked, and drove it at the
officers, who were investigating the report of an activated
burglar alarm at a house in North Star Village. Desmond Wade
was shot in the neck.
The officer’s name has not been released, and he has not
been charged. The investigation is pending.
>3#?;&7)&'**9&+&,-.&/#0$1
A police officer shot Elijah Jackson, 20, in the back as
Jackson ran away. Officers had driven up to him and his
friends in Times Square. Jackson said later that he could not
see the officers, and he thought they were robbers. An officer
chased him and cornered him in a building, where the officer
shot Jackson in the hand as he was surrendering. The
department did not name the officer. The investigation is
pending.
>3#?;&@)&'**9&+&,-.&:;0<3=
Police officers shot and killed Fernando Diaz in Vendors
Plaza in a hail of gunfire that wounded another officer.
Witnesses said several officers surrounded Diaz, who was
wielding a knife, in the middle of the plaza just a few yards
away from children practicing for a Carnival parade. Witnesses
said several officers fired at Diaz after they surrounded him.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron found the investigation reports
suspicious but did not prosecute.
The officers’ names have not been released, even though
they were cleared.
!5A5=-&7')&'**9&+&,-.&:;0<3=
A police officer shot and killed well-known auto mechanic
Alva Lockhart, 41, in his home. Police said Lockhart had
gotten into an argument with his wife, who called police.
Lockhart’s mother told the officers that her son had fired a
gun. Police said Lockhart approached the officer with “what
appeared to be a long-barrel handgun in his hand.” The officer
fired two rounds. One bullet struck Lockhart in the chest, and
Lockhart died en route to the hospital. The Police Department
will not identify the officer who shot Lockhart, saying the
investigation is still in progress.
Police have not said whether they found a gun at the
house. The investigation is pending.
!5A5=-&'B)&'**9&+&,-.&:;0<3=
Off-duty officer James Dowe shot Romiah Remy and
Kervin Williams in a parking lot outside the Kmart store at
Tutu Park Mall while shoppers were entering and leaving the
building. Williams, Remy and a third man, later identified as
Josiah Remy, got into a shouting match with Dowe, who was
working off duty as a Kmart security officer. One man broke a
bottle on Dowe’s face. Dowe fired two rounds, striking
Romiah Remy in the groin and Williams in the leg. Both were
charged with first-degree assault.
No charges were filed against Dowe. He remains on the
police force.
CD!CEF&GHI/D
!&,JD/K!E&KLMD,:KN!:KMD&IDJHI:&O6 EDD&PKEEK!>,Tuesday, December 30, 2003 The Virgin Islands Daily News 78
/!,D&QF&/!,D
Daily News File Photo
Pallbearers carry the body of Territorial Court Marshal Randy Stephens, who in 1998 was shot and killed by off-duty police officer
Dennis Vanterpool when he saw Stephens firing a gun in the line of duty and mistook him for a suspect. Vanterpool was
disciplined 10 years earlier for shooting an unarmed teen-age girl. He was not prosecuted in either case.
Shot by one of his own
!""%$?34-=&R;0&R$%%&<3ST&A00U&0VV$?T#=&=;3#T&?T#-3$4&-#3$-=W&$4-T%%$AT4?T)&;04T=-6)
$4-TA#$-6)&3""#0"#$3-T&<0-$X3-$04=&34U&=054U&Y5UA<T4-.
J3AT&97

VIDN_2003_DeadlyForce

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (17)

Similar to VIDN_2003_DeadlyForce

Similar to VIDN_2003_DeadlyForce (12)

More from Jason Robbins

More from Jason Robbins (8)

VIDN_2003_DeadlyForce