The U.S. Attorney for the Virgin Islands, Paul A. Murphy, issued a statement late Thursday saying federal law enforcement officers continue to address federal crimes in the Virgin Islands, including crimes involving firearms.
What his statement failed to make clear is whether those agents are sticking exclusively to cases with federal jurisdiction, or whether the agents are assisting in matters of local jurisdiction, as they formerly have done.
Murphy’s statement comes in the wake of an investigative report published on the VI Source Wednesday. The Source reported that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, which helps regulate guns and battles violent crime, had pulled all four of its agents out of the territory last fall. Several months later the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote in a confidential letter obtained by the Source, that federal agents would no longer involve themselves in any local law enforcement matters, as has customarily been the case.
Murphy said Thursday that the U.S. Marshals Service is assisting with the investigation and prosecution of some of the firearms cases which were previously handled by ATF, including some cases which originated with the Virgin Islands Police Department. ATF agents also are providing support to cases which were charged prior to their departure, he added.
The ATF’s departure was triggered, according to Murphy’s letter, by the resistance its shooting team investigators reportedly encountered from local law enforcement when they arrived to investigate the Sept. 7 shooting of 44-year-old Marcus Sukow. Sukow was killed by ATF office William Clark who had intervened in a domestic violence situation at Mahogany Run involving Sukow and his girlfriend.
Further exacerbating the ATF’s relationship with the territory was the Virgin Islands Attorney General’s decision to try Clark in territorial rather than federal court where his capacity as a federal agent would provide a layer of immunity. By trying Clark in territorial court, he cannot invoke what’s known as the Good Samaritan Statute, which allows a federal officer to intervene in threatening situations under the guise of official duty.
That decision by Attorney General Vincent F. Frazer, combined with the fact that the territory does not confer what is known as Peace Officer Status on federal agents, prompted Murphy to advise Frazer that no federal officer would assist in any cases that did not have federal jurisdiction. Peace Officer Status enables federal agents to enforce local statutes, thus providing them a degree of immunity in the event something unexpected happens in the investigation of a crime.
A crime becomes federal jurisdiction if it involves a convicted felon, drugs, guns or is in proximity to a school, among other factors. However, given the chronic understaffing of the local police departments, federal agents have typically assisted in local matters, until sometime around May 13, the date of Murphy’s letter to the attorney general.
The pull-back of the feds, as outlined in Wednesday’s Source story, prompted a flurry of callers to at least one local radio talk show, 93.5 FM. Many callers said they felt vulnerable without that extra layer of law enforcement protection. To date, the territory’s per-capita murder rate is more than five times that of the national average.
“ATF’s return to the District of the Virgin Islands is a priority that is being discussed
with officials in Washington, D.C.,” Murphy said in his statement Thursday.
