A police manhunt was under way Saturday in the Fortuna area of St. Thomas as officers searched for a suspect, reportedly carrying an automatic weapon, who had allegedly killed at least one man Friday.
There were reports of gunshots, and by late Saturday afternoon other reports indicated the situation had been resolved. A Source reporter driving home from covering an unrelated story said he saw police cars and two ambulances speeding toward the Fortuna area but had been unable to keep up with them.
There was no official word from the V.I. police Saturday afternoon as rumors and secondhand reports swept across St. Thomas.
The victim was reportedly a member of the Bordeaux area Rastafarian farming community, as was the alleged killer. While the Source received various accounts of Friday’s events throughout the day, the stories were at enough variance that no clear sequence emerged.
A resident of the area, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday morning police in flak jackets had been going from door to door notifying neighbors of the search and asking them to call the police at the slightest sign of anything suspicious.
The neighbor told the Source she had heard sirens in the vicinity Friday evening at about sundown and “smelled burning plastic.” Police told her that there had been a house fire at a home in Estate Bethesda, below the Massac nursing home. Responding units had found a body in the house and, the resident said, “someone with an automatic weapon is loose in our neighborhood.”
“We are to call 911 if we hear any dogs barking” or notice any other suspicious signs, she said.
Several people told the Source that the alleged perpetrator has a history of erratic behavior, threatening members of the farming community.
Source reporters will update this story as more details become available and facts are verified.