CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A St. Thomas man wanted for a brutal domestic violence assault is now behind bars in St. Thomas.
Akeem Antonio Forbes, 35, of Jode Gade, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault-domestic violence, simple assault-domestic violence, grand larceny and disturbance of the peace-domestic violence, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
The case against Forbes began at 9:00 a.m. on October 5, 2024, when the Domestic Violence Unit was notified of a domestic violence assault that took place in Contant, according to the VIPD.
VIPD mug shot of Akeem Forbes, 35, of Jode Gade in Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas.
The victim, an adult female, stated that on Saturday, October 5, 2024, her boyfriend, Akeem Forbes, struck her with a closed fist numerous times in the head and strangled her, police said.
The woman said that she was eventually able to escape and ran to a relative’s residence to
seek safety, according to police.
The female added that this was not the first incident of domestic violence and provided officers with details of the other assaults that she has endured at the hands of Forbes, VIPD spokeswoman Kishma Chichester said.
Forbes agreed to surrender himself to authorities in the presence of attorney on Monday.
The suspect was read his Miranda Rights and declined to make a statement when he was told the charges against him.
Forbes was booked, processed and transferred to the custody of the Bureau of Corrections at the St. Thomas jail pending further court action.
This case is currently under investigation by the Domestic Violence Unit.
Anyone with information about this crime can notify 911, the Domestic Violence Unit at 340-715-5535, or the Office of the Police Chief, or Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-8477.
Previous domestic violence incident
In August 2021, Forbes was accused of locking a woman in a pitbull-filled yard, Superior Court records show.
The suspect was arrested August 17, 2021, after a woman told police that she and Forbes had argued at night when he “became angry and struck her several times in the back of her head,” according to the probable cause fact sheet filed by the VIPD.
The victim said she “cried and begged” for Forbes to allow her to leave, but she didn’t have a key to the locked perimeter gate. She said Forbes “has several large and vicious pitbull dogs in his yard and that she has been bit by one before,” the sworn police affidavit shows.
When she asked Forbes to escort her out of the home, the victim said Forbes “responded to her saying, ‘You are not going anywhere because you will go to the police,’ ” according to the affidavit.
Forbes also said he’d told friends to “go after her” if he was ever arrested because of her, “and that she needs to watch herself,” the victim said.
At around 3 a.m. the victim said Forbes became angry again when she rejected his sexual advances, and “began strangling her,” and “struck her multiple times in her face,” according to the affidavit. Before he finally let her leave, Forbes also told her that “If you got to the police, I will kill you myself,” and made her give him her money as collateral “to make sure that she comes back.”
Police interviewed Forbes, who said the victim was the aggressor and “climbed on top of him trying to strangle him,” and said she “was never held against her will,” according to the affidavit. Forbes also told police he believed the victim filed the report “to spite him because she has already threatened to have him thrown in jail.”
In court in 2021, Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Brenda Scales said that Forbes has “several arrests and convictions dating back to 2015,” Superior Court records show.