CHRISTIANSTED — Police said a 28-year-old St. Croix man was shot multiple times and died near the American Red Cross headquarters in Castle Coakley last night.
Rabbhi D. Moquete of the Walter I.M. Hodge Pavilion in Smithfield was killed on the Queen Mary Highway near the Red Cross office across from the Sunny Isle Shopping Center about 7:47 p.m. Sunday, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
“Officers responded and discovered an unresponsive black male individual with multiple gunshots wounds to the body,” VIPD spokesman Glen Dratte said. “This incident remains a very active investigation.”
Moquete worked for 10 years at Wendy’s in the Sunny Isle Shopping Center before being promoted to management at the fast food restaurant.
The victim apparently worked just a few hundred yards from where he was shot to death. The American Red Cross office can be seen clearly from Wendy’s at Sunny Isle.
It is about a 20 to 30-minute drive from his apartment in Walter I.M. Hodge Pavilion to the Sunny Isle Shopping Center — a distance of more than half the island.
Sources close to the investigation said that Moquete was romantically involved with a woman who allegedly had crime connections. They said Moquete was present at the shootout at the Cool Out Bar on Friday.
Meanwhile, the VIPD’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it needs your help to solve the case.
Anyone with information about the shooting death of Moquete or who might have seen something unusual last night is asked to contact CIB detectives in complete confidence of confidentiality.
Concerned citizens began calling the 911 Emergency Call Center about 7:47 p.m.,Sunday to report shots fired on the Queen Mary Highway in Castle Coakley near the American Red Cross headquarters.
If you have information, please call the CIB TIP-LINE at (469) 475-3871, (340) 778-2211, the paying anonymous tip line Crime Stoppers USVI 1-800-222-8477 or 911.
“The Information you provide can make a difference in the community,” Dratte said.
