Territorial at-large representative Archibald Christian had strong words for anyone who may be shielding the killers of Trinity Azaria Moses, the 11-year-old shooting victim who was remembered during a candlelight vigil Monday night.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses about problems with the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force,” Mr. Christian admonished residents. “Whatever information you have, cooperate with the police. These killers are living amongst us. We can apprehend them tomorrow morning.”
Mr. Christian added, “We have been silent for too long.”
He suggested that Trinity’s death should be a “defining moment,” where residents “band together to rout the scourge of gun crime out of our community.”
The vigil
At the vigil, photographs, teddy bears and flowers filled a tent in the One Stop Mall car park, while Trinity’s grandparents and other family members sat in a van with the windows rolled down.
Dozens of attendees held up candles and shared their memories of Trinity. Many of them were students, parents and parishioners from St. George’s Episcopal Church and School, where Trinity was a student.
“It’s a difficult thing to explain to your son that you lost your classmate to gun violence,” said Eighth District Representative Marlon Penn, whose son was in Trinity’s class. “Why? She had just started to live.”
Dr. Ian Rock, the rector at St. George’s, led hymns and prayers, and urged the government to implement a system where anyone with information about crime can report it directly to Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Christian and Marlon Penn acknowledged Dr. Rock’s concerns but stopped short of endorsing the idea.
Deputy Premier Dr. Kedrick Pickering, who delivered Trinity as a baby and remained close friends with her grandparents, also spoke at the vigil.
“We must always take the death of a child seriously,” he said. “We have a responsibility to make sure these [incidents] don’t become commonplace.”
‘A family of God’
Dr. Antoinette Rock, St. George’s Secondary School principal and Trinity’s former teacher, said, “We are a family of God [at the church]. [Losing Trinity] is like losing a family member.”
She continued, “She was my student. I remembered how she used to come into my classroom and share her lunch with everyone. I told her, ‘Trinity, you won’t have any food left.’”
Marlon Penn also said that when he was growing up, he was close to his relative, victim Franklin Penn. Franklin Penn was the brother of Alston Penn, who was allegedly murdered earlier this year, and many of the speakers expressed condolences to the Penn family for the losses they suffered in close succession.
Finally, some of Trinity’s classmates at St. George’s also spoke about their memories of their friend.
“She was a phenomenal person,” one girl said before bursting into tears. “She always made us laugh.”
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