Feb. 9, 2002 – In the third killing of the week, and the second of the day, on St. Thomas, 18-year-old Julien Cline died Friday night of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police Chief Novelle Francis Jr. said late Friday night that officers responded to reports of shots fired in Hospital Ground around 8 p.m. The shooting took place at a home a short distance from Bethel Baptist Church.
Francis identified Cline as a resident of the area. "It was at the residence that they found the gunshot victim," he said. "We have no motive for the shooting," he added, and police have not indentified a suspect.
Major Crime Unit detectives were interviewing potential witnesses to determine the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting, Francis said. Police sources described the weapon used in the fatal shooting as a small-caliber handgun, but Francis did not say whether officers had found the gun at the scene.
Cline was pronounced dead at Roy L. Schneider Hospital about 30 minutes after the shooting.
Police would not comment on speculation that the shooting was in retaliation for the shooting death of Ingatius Charles earlier this week. Charles, 32, was gunned down in Nazareth after dropping his girlfriend off at her home.
Late Friday night, Francis also identified the victim of Friday's early morning shooting on lower Kronprindsens Gade as Darien Gumbs, 23. He had no address for Gumbs, whose bullet-riddled body was found in a house in Nye Norsidevej.
Gumbs was shot to death and Charles Turbe was injured in the pre-dawn gunfire.
In a release distributed late Friday afternoon, Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty had said that Turbe, Gumbs and several other men were in the house when an unidentified individual stormed the dwelling and sprayed the area with automatic gunfire.
Investigations into both killings are continuing. Francis asked that anyone with information about either case call police at the emergency number 911.
