Two men are dead following a shooting Sunday night at the Paradise Mills housing community on St. Croix, the V.I. Police Department reported Monday morning.
The 911 Emergency Call Center received multiple calls at 10:32 p.m. of shots fired in the Frederiksted housing community, according to the VIPD report. In addition, 911 received calls about a man down in Paradise Mills and another down in the Louis E. Brown housing community, it said.
Officers arriving at Paradise Mills discovered an unresponsive man who was then transported to the Juan Luis Hospital via ambulance, where he was later pronounced dead, the VIPD reported. The man was identified by his next of kin as 18-year-old Steven Hodge Jr.
Officers traveled to the Louis E. Brown apartments, Phase 2, where an unresponsive man was found lying on the sidewalk. He was later identified by next of kin as 34-year-old Aurelio Rivera.
Both men were shot multiple times, the VIPD stated.
Investigation revealed that Rivera ran from Paradise Mills to the Louis E. Brown housing community, where he dropped and died of his injuries, the report said.
Sunday’s deaths cap a violent week on St. Croix. They are the territory’s 25th and 26th homicides of 2022, and the 19thand 20th for the big island, according to the Source Homicide List.*
Two men were shot and killed Wednesday in separate incidents, according to the VIPD. Jose Berrios, 47, was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the staircase of building 88 in the Harvey housing community around 7:45 p.m. that day, according to police. When EMS arrived, Berrios had already succumbed to his injuries, they said.
Earlier in the day, Jorge Luis Saldana, 24, was shot multiple times while at work mowing grass around 9:40 a.m. in Bethlehem Village on St. Croix. Police found Saldana lying on the ground in front of his apartment. The gunman had already fled the area by the time police arrived, the VIPD reported.
The investigation continues into these shootings. Anyone with information about these or other crimes can call the Criminal Investigation Bureau tip-line at 340-778-4850, or 340-712-6092, Crime Stoppers V.I. at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or 911.
*The Source Homicide List is a chronological log of the homicides recorded in 2022 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as reported by the VIPD. Cases are broken down by island. While this listing is based on VIPD reports, the Source does not include suicides or vehicular homicides in its listing that the police and some other media do. This can lead to a discrepancy in the number of incidents reported.
