VIPD Pushing Hard: Another Man Arrested For Gun Possession

ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Police Department has been seeing substantial results here in its heightened efforts to quell criminal activity, as yet another young man, 25-year-old William Libert of Estate Castle Burke, was arrested on Saturday and charged with unauthorized possession of a firearm.

That’s according to a press release VIPD Public Information Officer Kevin Jackson issued on Monday, revealing that Libert had been in his vehicle parked in the public parking lot of the Candido Guadeloupe Housing Community when approached by officers.

A bag of marijuana had been found on the front passenger seat laying in plain view of the officers, and after further inspection of the vehicle, officers also discovered a handgun.

Unable to make bail of $25,000, Libert was remanded to the Bureau  of Corrections pending his advise-of-rights hearing.

At a press conference organized to make known steps that the VIPD has taken to fight the upswing of criminal activity in the territory, Police Commissioner Delroy Richards, with Police Chief Arthur Hector, Sr., at his side, revealed last Wednesday that the force had confiscated 45 illegal guns territory-wide since January.

Libert Williams

“We have aggressively, with the resources that we have, confront, we have targeted — we have arrested as much as we possibly can,” Richards said. With guns on display on a table as proof of the VIPD’s efforts, the commissioner said “these weapons that you see on the table are weapons that have been confiscated from January to now.”

Richards said the VIPD has been successful in its efforts to “identify possible persons of interest on a number of high profile cases, and we have began to utilize all our crime-fighting capabilities.” The commissioner, who has a long leadership history in both the private and public sectors, said the VIPD has begun the process of filling positions on the cold case squad in an effort to solve cases that residents might think the force has ignored.

“All major cases are being pursued to the extent that we have returned experience detectives to the cold case squad,” Richards said.