A Desperate Plea for Help Inside a Northside Store
By JOHN McCARTHY / V.I. Free Press News Reporter
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — An ordinary retail evening on the Northside of St. Thomas transformed into a terrifying domestic hostage scenario that required emergency intervention from Special Operations units.
The emergency unfolded at approximately 6:01 p.m. on Saturday, when Central Dispatch rushed uniform units to the Puma Gas Station after receiving panicked reports of a physical altercation happening inside the convenience store.
A store manager informed detectives that a female patron had hurried into the shop visibly shaking and acting in a fearful manner, asking where the brake fluid was located in a desperate bid to find refuge from a man pursuing her.
A Violent Bear-Hug and Death Threats Overheard by Witnesses
Within sixty seconds of the woman’s arrival, the suspect, Akeem Forbes, marched into the storefront and aggressively trailed her to the rear of the shop. Forbes briefly exited and returned as she tried to complete a transaction, suddenly grabbing her from behind in a tight, violent bear-hug. When the victim frantically attempted to use her cellular phone to call 911 for rescue, Forbes lunged forward to rip the device out of her hands, forcing her to hurl the phone across the room toward the cashier’s counter to keep it functional. As Forbes began physically dragging the resisting woman toward the exit doors, the store manager overheard the victim screaming that the suspect had already tried to kill her earlier that day and would surely end her life if he succeeded in forcing her into his truck.
The Red-Light Truck Stop and Court Contempt Charges
Forbes successfully forced the screaming woman out of the building, shoved her into a white Toyota Tacoma truck, and fled the property at a high rate of speed. The flight from the scene was short-lived, as a police sergeant spotted the exact white pickup truck aggressively blowing past a red traffic signal light on Julius Jackson Drive less than fifteen minutes later. A high-stakes traffic stop was initiated at a nearby bus stop, and Forbes was immediately arrested and secured inside a patrol unit.
While the victim was safely transported to a family residence after refusing medical evaluation, background checks revealed a dangerous pattern of conduct. Forbes had a deep history of domestic violence filings and was actively violating existing judicial orders. He was processed at the police command and remanded to the Bureau of Corrections without bail on charges of Simple Assault, Disturbance of the Peace, Malicious Interference with Emergency Communication, and two separate counts of Contempt of Court.
