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HomeNewsArchivesGARDEN STREET MURDER IS YEAR'S 6TH

GARDEN STREET MURDER IS YEAR'S 6TH

April 30, 2001 – St. Thomas recorded its sixth murder of the year early Monday when a man was found fatally shot in a pickup truck on Commandant Gade, also known as Garden Street.
The body of the victim, initially identified by police only as a black male, was found in the back of what was reported at the scene to be his mother's truck, parked a block south of All Saints Cathedral School.
Police homicide detectives were called at 1:50 a.m. Monday after patrol units, responding to reports of shots fired in the area, found the victim with a gunshot wound to the head. At the scene, police were trying to determine what led to the fatal shooting.
The green Ford Ranger pickup truck, registered to Idalia Bess of No. 1 Hill Street, St. Thomas, was parked between a Chevy Blazer and another pickup truck on the side of Garden Street. A short distance to the south on the street, a few persons huddled outside the Pinnacle nightclub.
A building near where the body was found bore the marks of gunfire. One bullet had chipped a yellow concrete wall, leaving a hole in its path.
Police investigators have little information to work with, a senior officer at the scene said. The victim had dreadlocks and was wearing a gray T-shirt, black jeans and black and white sneakers.
The killing is the eighth in the territory this year, and the second on St. Thomas in less than a week. On April 25, police found the bullet-riddled body of Carlos Colon, 22, a Lindbergh Bay resident, in a car on Crown Mountain. Police sources have described that killing as an execution. As of April 30 last year, there had been six murders in the territory, four on St. Thomas.
Police appealed to anyone with information on either of the murders to call Major Crime Unit detectives at 774-4050, the confidential crime line at 777-8711 or emergency number 911.

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