FREDERIKSTED — A St. Croix man allegedly picked up a high school girl on her school campus and held her at knifepoint in his car, authorities said.
Axel J. Betancourt, 19, of Williams Delight, was arrested at 9:53 p.m. Friday and charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
A 16-year-old girl said that Betancourt, who is a friend of the victim’s ex-boyfriend, offered her a ride home from school earlier that day, according to the VIPD.
“However, Betancourt left the school campus and started driving in the opposite direction from where the victim lives,” VIPD spokesman Toby Derima said. “When she started questioning why Betancourt was driving in that direction, he then held the victim at knifepoint.”
The unnamed girl told police that Betancourt took her back to the school campus after she started pleading with him to take her back there, according to Derima.
When contacted by police, Betancourt admitted to being in the company of the minor and that he had a knife at the time, police said.
Betancourt’s bail was set at $10,000. Unable to post bail, he was remanded to the custody of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections pending an advice-of-rights hearing.
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Ras Felix of Williams Delight, now living in Ansonia, Connecticut, defended Betancourt’s alleged criminal actions on Facebook this afternoon. Felix used racist epithets which cannot be printed in a family newspaper like the Virgin Islands Free Press.