ROAD TOWN — A 37-year-old British Virgin Islands man has been arrested in connection with an early morning shooting on Sunday that left another dead.
Police meanwhile are asking for the public’s help with identifying the victim.
Diane Drayton, spokesperson for the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force, said in a written statement that 37-year-old Hasani Frett of Greenland was arrested Monday.
Frett is charged with murder, inflicting grievous bodily harm, and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life for the 4 a.m. shooting near the House of Assembly building in Road Town.
The victim, however, “is still to be identified,” and detectives are asking individuals who may know the man’s identity to come forward. BVI police, however, provided no details that would help the public assist them in identifying the body.
Drayton on Monday also clarified that a second shooting on Sunday, in which a woman was shot in the leg, occurred at a separate location but provided no other details. In a statement shortly after the incident on Sunday, Drayton had said she could not say whether the two were linked.
“A female reported to the Dr. Orlando Hospital also with a gun shot wound to the leg. The two incidents have not been linked so far,” Drayton said at the time in a news release.
The woman has since been treated for the leg wound at the hospital, she said Monday.
Sunday’s killing marked the second on the island in seven days, and on Monday the National Security Council announced a reward of $20,000 for information leading to a conviction of perpetrators in both homicides.
On February 6, Yan Edwards, 42, of Long Look was killed around 6 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene at Moose’s Bar in Parham Town. Witnesses have told police that he was sitting at the bar when he was shot, and fell to the ground. No one else was injured, and police have not made an arrest in that killing.
Police also have not made an arrest in an October 2021 shooting death in the East End-Long Look area that also occurred inside a bar.
In that incident, two men were shot and killed around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, inside Wayside Inn Bar in Vanterpool Estate. Two other men were injured in the incident and had to be hospitalized.
Witnesses told police at the time that they heard eight shots fired, and when it was over Kadeem Frett, 28, of Long Look, and Kawa Cornwall, 38, of Huntums Ghut were both dead, with one of the men lying in a pool of blood on the bar’s floor.
BVI Premier Natalio Wheatley, who denounced the homicides in the House of Assembly, said in published reports that the two dead men were his cousins. A $20,000 reward also was offered in that double homicide, but to date no arrests have been made.
In her statement on Monday, Drayton said that over the past week officers have been conducting stop searches throughout the East End and Road Town districts following reports of gunfire as well as the recent killings. Nearly 30 individuals were searched and quantities of both marijuana and cocaine were recovered. Some of the individuals, who remained unnamed, were cited for various traffic violations, according to the statement.
To help police, contact the anonymous Crime Stoppers tip line at 284 800-8477 or 284-368-9345.
By DEAN GREENAWAY/Virgin Islands Daily News
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