Just two hours before hundreds of people gathered for the annual Walk/Run Against Gun Violence through Charlotte Amalie, 21-year-old Vershawn Monsanto was gunned down Sunday in the vicinity of the Wheatly Center.
It was the 15th homicide on St. Thomas since the start of the year, the 21st in the territory.
According to the V.I. Police Department, at 2:10 p.m. Sunday officers responded to a report of shots fired in the vicinity of the McDonald’s in Wheatly Center, and the Schneider Regional Medical Center, where a patient was being treated for a gunshot wound.
At the hospital’s emergency room, officers attempted to speak with 21-year-old Vershawn Monsanto of the Paul M. Pearson Garden Housing Community. He had been shot in the right side of his chest and the bullet exited through his back. Due to the severity of his wound, he was rushed into surgery and was unable to talk to officers.
He died of his injury at 4:32 p.m.
The crime scene was later identified and processed by the Forensic Unit.
The case is under investigation by the Homicide Task Force. Police asked anyone with information regarding the incident to contact the Task Force at 340-774-2211 at extensions 5617 and 5554. or to call 911, the Commissioner’s Office at 340-715-5506, the St. Thomas-St. John Chief’s Office at 340-715-5548, or the anonymous tip service, Crime Stoppers USVI, at 1-800-222-8477.