CHRISTIANSTED — A man who led federal authorities on a high-speed boat chase around St. Croix after a shooting at Buck Island has been given a sentence of six months home detention.
Aneudis Acevedo, 33, appeared in U.S. District Court in Golden Rock and was handed that sentence and other conditions on a charge of resisting or impeding an officer of the United States, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
In all, Judge Wilma A. Lewis sentenced Acevedo to three years of probation, six months of home detention (with location monitoring), a fine of $10,000, and a $25 special assessment.
According to court documents, in the late afternoon of January 10, 2021, shots were fired on the Buck Island Reef National Monument after a fight occurred on the beach. Immediately after the shots were fired, Acevedo fled the scene in his boat at a high rate of speed while carrying several passengers. He fled from a National Park Service boat and officer, disobeying multiple orders directing him to stop.
At one point during the pursuit, the boats physically came into contact, but Acevedo continued to flee. Acevedo forced the National Park Service boat to abandon the pursuit after he travelled into shallow channels by a reef. The United States Coast Guard assisted and approximately two hours later took the defendant into custody on the south side of the island of St. Croix. However, at the time of apprehension, six boat passengers were no longer on the boat.
The National Park Service (NPS) the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Huston prosecuted the case.
This case is part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative. Project Safe
Neighborhoods is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local and tribal law
enforcement officials, prosecutors, and community leaders to identify the most pressing violent
crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.
For more information on the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, please see:
https://www.justice.gov/psn.