Unknown gunmen sprayed St. Croix’s Carlos’ Bar parking lot with bullets around 4 a.m. Sunday, wounding two women and a man, the Virgin Islands Police Department reported.
The victims were transported to the Juan F. Luis Hospital emergency room via private vehicle. Police said they were in stable condition.
Police recovered more than 60 shell casings from the Peter’s Rest night spot but had yet to identify a suspect.
The pre-dawn shooting came as St. Croix still reeled from the brazen daylight shooting of entertainer Jordan Jones, known professionally as Dutty Heart, three days earlier. It was the territory’s 14th homicide of 2025, the eighth on St. Croix. A 15-year-old boy has been arrested for the killing.
An eyewitness to the shooting said other people nearby during the attack appeared to be casually armed with concealed handguns but were not involved with the killing or attempted to intervene.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said the midday killing in a public space was “a chilling reminder of the urgent need to confront and uproot the culture of violence that continues to harm our communities.”
In January, police arrested a man alleged to have an unlicensed handgun in his vehicle outside Carlos’ Bar, also known as De Carlos Bar & Car Wash. Later in 2024, four people were arrested for allegedly robbing cash machine users nearby.
