CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A 20-year-old Dominican man has been arrested on assault charges after he admitted to breaking a Tutu man’s arm with a metal baseball bat, authorities said.
Reivin Jimenez Hernandez, of the Dominican Republic, was arrested at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday and charged with third-degree assault, disturbing the peace by fighting, and use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime of violence, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
The unnamed victim positively identified Jimenez Hernandez as his attacker in Estate Tutu on Monday night, according to police.
But Jimenez-Hernandez, who asked for an English-language interpreter in Superior Court, told Magistrate Judge Carolyn Hermon-Percell in Spanish that he did not understand why he was charged with a crime when he was not the first aggressor.
“We had a fight, that’s it,” Jimenez-Hernandez said. “All I did was defend myself.”
Jimenez-Hernandez, who currently resides in Bovoni, told police that the victim struck him first with a rock, so he struck the victim “one time with the silver metal bat and left the area,” court records indicate.
The battle between the two men began on Monday when Jimenez-Hernandez went to the victim’s home in Tutu. After a heated argument spurred a fight, the unnamed victim said Hernandez took a silver metal bat out of his car and “swung the bat toward his head, however, while trying to defend himself, he was struck in the left arm,”
The Tutu man was taken to the Schneider Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for a fractured ulna bone in his forearm, and lacerations to the elbow, police said.
The 911 Emergency Call Center dispatched detectives to the Schneider Hospital in reference to an assault victim about 10:19 p.m. Monday, according to the VIPD.
Bail for Jimenez Hernandez was set at $25,000. Unable to post bail, he was remanded to the custody of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections (BOC) pending an advice-of-rights hearing.
Detectives are asking anyone who has information on this incident to call 911, the Criminal Investigation Bureau at (340) 774-2211 extension 5579 or the paying anonymous tip line Crime Stoppers USVI at (800) 222-8477.
“Remember, if you see something, say something,” the VIPD says.
All individuals listed as arrested or charged with a crime in this news article are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.