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ST. THOMAS — Police Commissioner Trevor Velinor on Thursday evening spoke in strong terms against the shooting in St. Thomas today that left two individuals dead. The incident took place during the early afternoon hours in the Tutu area.
The two men were believed to be Waste Management Authority contract workers who were on the job when the shooting occurred. A statement on the incident from Waste Management has since been recanted.
"We're going to utilize all the tools that we have to investigate this matter," the police commissioner told the Consortium. "We have two members of our community that were killed and we want to get to the bottom of it and we want to hold those who committed this heinous act accountable."
Mr. Velinor said a reward was being organized for anyone that could provide information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.
"We take this very, very seriously," he said. "A crime on one or two people is a crime on our entire community, so we're going to be addressing that." The commissioner said officers were piecing information together as part of their investigation.
The victims have been identified as 29-year-old Rique Ashby, and his cousin 14-year-old Aaron Ashby.
Today's double homicide follows a shooting on St. Croix five days ago that left one man dead in the Smithfield / Two Brothers area, just east of the Walter I. M. Hodge Pavilion housing community.
If you have information you believe may be useful to the police investigation, send an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers USVI through this link.
