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HomeNewsArchivesPOLICE SAY KENNEDY SHOOTING CASE 'PROGRESSING'

POLICE SAY KENNEDY SHOOTING CASE 'PROGRESSING'

Last of a three-part series
From the day 19-year-old Geoffrey Brian Kennedy was shot in the back and left paralyzed from the waist down, he, his parents and the friend who is their most vocal advocate have had nothing but good things to say about the professional medical and law-enforcement help they've gotten.
But in the five weeks since the April 25 broad-daylight shooting in downtown Charlotte Amalie, their anxiety has grown about what is being done to investigate the crime. And their efforts to retrieve Geoff Kennedy's wallet, passport and backpack from the V.I. Police Department have been frustrated so far.
Police have not communicated with Geoff Kennedy since an officer took information from him in the Roy L. Schneider Hospital emergency room that same day.
On Tuesday, Sgt. Reynold Fraser of the V.I. Police Department's Investigation Bureau on St. Thomas told the Source that the case is "progressing satisfactorily" and that he anticipates arresting a suspect in the "reasonable near future."
In a press release from the Police Department on the day of the shooting, Police Chief Jose Garcia stated that a spent casing from a .38-caliber handgun was found at the scene, as was a brown bicycle that the assailant apparently used before fleeing on foot.
Sgt. Anthony Hunt was at the shooting scene. He said he "was there in my capacity as sergeant of the Forensics Unit." He declined further comment, saying only that "the investigative chief is the one that you would really have to talk to."
That person is Fraser.
"We are actively working the case, and it's progressing satisfactorily," Fraser said Tuesday. "We have the bicycle in our possession." He said police have identified the owner of the bike. He would not confirm that police have custody of the .38 bullet casing, however, and would say only, "It seems the forensic unit was at the scene."
Asked if police anticipated taking the bicycle owner into custody, Fraser said, "I think it's best not to comment any further on the case." He said he anticipates that a suspect will be apprehended "within a reasonable near future." He declined to specify an estimated time frame, repeating, "a reasonable near future."
Fraser said he spoke to Terry Kennedy by telephone "last week," while the elder Kennedy puts the date at two and a half weeks ago. As to how soon he anticipates being able to arrange for Geoff Kennedy to view a photo line-up, Fraser would say only, "At this point, I'm not going to comment any more. Things are at a too-sensitive stage."
Fraser said he and Hunt "are the supervisors of the units" involved in investigating the shooting. He also said that the man charged in the fatal shooting on Main Street last week of 18-year-old Jason Carroll is not a suspect in the Kennedy case.
The Kennedys have praised the work of the police and emergency medical personnel at the scene of the shooting, in the Schneider Hospital emergency room, in the Puerto Rico hospital where Geoff Kennedy spent 24 days, and at the San Juan rehabilitation center where he is now receiving intensive therapy.
His mother, Pam Kennedy, spoke once by telephone with Hunt as the officer who went to the scene of the crime. She was gratified to learn that he had received emergency medical training and grateful that he warned those gathered at the site "not to touch Geoff," so the bullet, between two vertebrae and close to the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body, would not dislodge.
His father, Terry Kennedy, says he received the message about two and a half weeks ago that Fraser had telephoned him at the Puerto Rico hotel where he has been staying to be with his son. He returned the call, spoke with Fraser, and said the officer asked when someone from the Police Department could show his son some photographs to see if he could identify his assailant. According to Terry Kennedy, that was the only communication he has had with police.
Mary Castle Bartolucci, the mother of Geoff Kennedy's closest friend, Antilles School graduating senior Lesley Castle, has tried for weeks to retrieve Geoff's personal possessions that were taken by the police at the scene of the shooting.
According to Bartolucci, who lives on St. John, the latest word is that his parents, who are the managing partners of a small hotel on Tortola, must provide a notarized letter authorizing the police to release the items — his wallet containing about $200, his U.S. passport and his backpack — to her.

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