The intent of July 21 afternoon’s March Against Gun Violence up Veterans Drive was marred by the latest reported homicide on St. Thomas. The details provided by investigators put the shooting in Estate Thomas, not far from where marchers assembled along Lover’s Lane.
On-and-off-duty police, police retirees, other first responders, and emergency medical workers joined with healthcare advocates, a motorcycle club, seniors, and a little league softball team in calling for an end to gun violence. They also used the occasion to rally support for the friends and family of police detective Delberth Phipps Jr.
About 150 people attended the march from the Lucinda Millin Home Intersection to Emancipation Garden, and the late afternoon rally that followed.
Phipps was shot and killed on July 4 during an armed confrontation with a man awaiting trial on murder charges. Fifty-one-year-old Richardson Dangelben Jr. was shot and wounded in that encounter. He is now in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Puerto Rico.
Police Lt. David Cannonier addressed the crowd from the David Monsanto Bandstand on behalf of Police Commission Ray Martinez and District Police Chief Steven Phillips.
“I wish — I really wish — I could tell you that I’m happy to be here to speak on behalf of the Virgin Islands Police Department, but I wish I didn’t have to be here and I wish you weren’t here too,” Cannonier said.
But the lieutenant called it an honor to appear in support of Phipps and his father, retired police detective Delberth Phipps Sr, both now former co-workers. Senator Dwayne DeGraff called Phipps Sr. and his wife, Denise Phipps, classmates and friends he had known for many years.
“Their family is my family and their children are my children,” DeGraff said.
The Roy L. Schneider Hospital Family also showed up on behalf of Denise, an emergency room nurse. “I think we have the capacity as a community to stop gun violence,” said Chief Nursing Officer Delphine Olivacce.
But as word of the latest homicide spread through the crowd, it was difficult to understand how. Police were called to a home in Estate Thomas after a citizen reported that someone had been shot there. Upon arrival they found 48-year-old Steave Liverpool lying unresponsive. He was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency medical service technicians.
“While on the scene, Law Enforcement received information that the victim’s brother, Richard Liverpool shot and killed him. Richard Liverpool was placed under arrest and charged with murder in the first degree,” said VIPD Public Information Officer Glen Dratte.
One of the detectives, Vernon Carr, told the gathering that his first reaction when hearing about the shooting was to pick up his phone and call Delbert Phipps Jr. But then he realized the call could not go through.
So Carr said, he hung up.
Cannonier said it’s time for the Virgin Islands community to end its complacency about gun violence and realize the risk of letting it continue, unabated. “We as a collective community need to wake up from our dormancy to the reality of gun violence in our beautiful territory and in the United States,” he said.
“We’re not going to give up,” De Graff added, “Violence won’t end, but we’re not going to give up hope.”
