Bail has been set at $150,000 in each of the two new cases now pending against 21-year-old Ritchie Fontaine, who has been arrested several times over the past week on charges ranging from reckless endangerment to first degree robbery.
He was most recently arrested around 11:35 a.m. Tuesday and charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a dangerous weapon for his alleged involvement in a shootout near E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary School that put one 10-year-old school student in the hospital last May with a gunshot wound to the left shoulder.
The boy survived the shooting, but had to be airlifted to a hospital in Puerto Rico for further treatment.
Surveillance camera footage "positively identified" Fontaine as the individual who fired the shot that pierced the back window of the school bus the student was traveling on, according to a Police Department press release.
The charges stemming from the school bus incident were upheld Wednesday by Magistrate Court Judge Kathleen McKay during an advice of rights hearing in V.I. Superior Court.
The judge also upheld charges of reckless endangerment, destruction of property and possession of a dangerous weapon stemming from a separate incident that Fontaine was also arrested for on Tuesday.
Fontaine is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Sept. 3.
Meanwhile, he was also arrested around 11 a.m. Sunday and charged with, among other things, two counts of first degree robbery for allegedly holding up two victims at gunpoint about two weeks ago in Estate Anna’s Retreat.
At the time of his arrest, Fontaine was carrying a loaded firearm with a partially obliterated serial number, according to a VIPD press release. He was also charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, failure to report ammunition and possession of a firearm within 1,000 feet of school.
Fontaine was advised of his rights on those charges Monday, and his bail was set at $200,000, according to Superior Court personnel