North Carolina Man Thought Armed Hold-Up Was A Hoax … Never Left Bar Stool Until Shot
John McCarthy
CHRISTIANSTED — The North Carolina man who was killed at Castaway’s Bar thought that the armed holdup was a put-on when it was happening in real time — and he never left his stool up at the bar until he was shot.
Derrick Lynn Cribb, of Whiteville, N.C., was shot just before 11:39 p.m. on Wednesday but considered the armed robbery a hoax at the time — and he paid the ultimate price for his Estate Solitude mistake — death within two hours.
Three masked men entered the popular East Bar & Restaurant with guns and demanded that all the patrons lay on the ground.
“He was shot because he didn’t go down to the ground,” Virgin Islands Police Department spokesman Glen Dratte told the Virgin Islands Free Pressexclusively today. “The guy was having a good time drinking.”
After firing a number of warning shots in the air, one of the men fatally shot Cribb. They then proceeded to steal money from the cash register and immediately fled the scene.
The VIPD is currently looking for the getaway vehicle used in the shooting, a blue Jeep Wrangler, as it may also be connected to a home invasion that occurred earlier in the week.
Cribb came to St. Croix to work for the Emergency Home Repairs V.I. (EHRVI) program part of the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority (VIHFA) that is actively doing hurricane recovery work in the territory.
Cribb is survived by his wife and two children in North Carolina.
CASTAWAY’S BAR AND RESTAURANT IN ESTATE SOLITUDE, ST. CROIX
