CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Police are investigating after a St. Thomas man was shot dead in the Havensight Mall parking lot.
Cursim Hansen, 31, was positively identified by a family member as the deceased, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
Concerned citizens contacted the 911 Emergency Call Center and reported several shots fired near the Havensight Mall parking lot with a possible man down, according to the VIPD.
“Responding officers arrived on the scene and observed an unresponsive, black male lying in the parking lot with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds about his body,” VIPD Communications Director Glen Dratte said.
Emergency Medical Technicians also arrived on the scene and checked Hansen for vital signs and concluded that he had no signs of life, according to Dratte.
Anyone having any information about this homicide is asked to please contact the Virgin Islands Police Department at 340-774-2211, the Criminal Investigation Unit’s Major Crimes Division at 340-642-8449 or Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-8477.
John McCarthy is primarily known for his investigative reporting on the U.S. Virgin Islands. A series of reports beginning in the 1990's revealed that there was everything from coliform bacteria to Cryptosporidium in locally-bottled St. Croix drinking water, according to a then-unpublished University of the Virgin Islands sampling. Another report, following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, cited a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confidential overview that said that over 40 percent of the U.S. Virgin Islands public lives below the poverty line. The Virgin Islands Free Press is the only Caribbean news source to regularly incorporate the findings of U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests. John's articles have appeared in the BVI Beacon, St. Croix Avis, San Juan Star and Virgin Islands Daily News. He is the former news director of WSVI-TV Channel 8 on St. Croix.
