Crime

VIPD Updates 2016 Homicide Count To 47; On Current Track, It Could Be 60 By Year's End

ST. CROIX -- The Virgin Islands Police Department has updated the 2016 homicide count to forty-seven, 40 of which were shooting/stabbing-related, while 7 were vehicular. The information was provided upon request by the force's public information officer, Glen Dratte. Of the 47 homicides, St. Croix has seen 22 so far, six of which were vehicular while 16 were from gun violence. The St. Thomas-St. John district leads with 25 homicides, with only one being vehicular, while the remaining 24 were gun and stabbing-related, according the information Mr. Dratte provided. Excluding the vehicular homicides, when divided by months, the territory has seen 5 homicides every month this year. And if the trend continues, with four more months remaining in 2016, there would be 20 more homicides -- leading to a total of 60 gun-related homicides in one year. Governor Kenneth Mapp in April told The Consortium that crime in the territory would get worse before results of his administration’s initiativ...