A 20-year-old man was shot to death shortly before 2 a.m. yesterday morning near his Purcell Estate residence amid a series of violent incidents across Tortola over 24 hours, police said.
The shooting spree included the death of Quentinn Noel and involved “about” three other shooting incidents, police said yesterday afternoon.
They did not say if the shooting incidents were believed to be related.
As part of their ongoing investigations, police also seized a “significant quantity of ammunition” yesterday and said a person had been “taken into custody for crimes related to ammunition.”
They did not identify the suspect.
The shootings are “high-priority cases” for the police force, which dispatched several of its units, including the Major Incident Team, to help solve the crimes, police said.
Acting Police Commissioner Jacquelyn Vanterpool was slated to hold a press conference at Police Headquarters yesterday afternoon after Beacon press time to provide further details about the shootings and the police response.
The death of Mr. Noel was the Virgin Islands’ first reported killing of 2025.
It came amid a busy two weeks for police, who also responded to reports of shots fired at Hannahs Estate on Jan. 8; the discovery of a 68-year-old deceased man in a vehicle in Long Swamp on Jan. 8; and the Jan. 13 arrest of one of two men wanted on attempted murder charges in connection with a Nov. 8 shooting in Long Bush.
Anyone with additional information about crimes in the territory is encouraged to contact the police at 368-9339 or the non-emergency access number 311.