Senator Kenneth Gittens on Monday denounced the spate of violence that he said has held the community and law-abiding citizens hostage. Mr. Gittens, a former law enforcement officer, said the sequence of violent events that unfolded Sunday night at Fort Frederik Beach on St. Croix underscores three concerns he has repeatedly raised this term.
“These events renew my calls for increased police presence and swift arrest for disorderly conduct in the public streets; making the rebuild of the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital a priority and reminding our community that it is time to stop protecting the small number of individuals with criminal behavior who are creating havoc by coming forward,” the senator said.
Reports of the gunfire that broke out in the middle of a densely populated beach event Sunday night sent shockwaves through the territory. “This was a family event with many children present out enjoying the long days of summer,” Mr. Gittens said. “To hear some of the stories of how the barrage of gunshots rang out and how people had to run or drop on the ground and the reports of how others huddled and hid under vehicles to avoid being struck by bullets brought tears to my eyes because the trauma of being in such an atmosphere is real.”
According to Mr. Gittens’s office, not long before the shootings occurred, the senator said he saw that videos of several fights at the event had been circulating via social media. He said it was unacceptable that dozens of people recorded the street brawl and no one stepped in to quell the fracas. More troubling, he said, was that there have been no reports of arrests of those fighting and that additional police should have been dispatched to the area at that point to start winding down the event.
Mr. Gittens is calling on the hundreds of people who were in the area to make it their civic and moral responsibility to speak with police and tell them what they know about what occurred Sunday evening.
“Today most of you can tell stories of how you ran for your life or how you grabbed your children and sought refuge from the hail of gunfire with total strangers,” he said. “But with these thugs on our street, there is no telling when or where they will strike again and if anyone will be as fortunate the next time.”
The senator said residents are living in a time where St. Croix’s only community hospital is still severely damaged as a result of the 2017 hurricanes. “We have one functional operating room and staffing shortages are an everyday reality,” he said.
“It was chaos at the hospital last night. We need to apply pressure and hold the leadership of the hospital accountable to get our medical facility back online,” Mr. Gittens said. “Our community needs answers, we need a definite timeline on the direction we are going at JFLH for more dependable and adequate chronic and acute healthcare. We need the appointment of a permanent CEO, so I am calling on the Hospital board to commence an active search sooner rather than later.”
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