While Sen. Diane Capehart was erecting campaign signs with another individual near the Hannah’s Rest intersection Monday evening, she was victim to a dangerous armed robbery and carjacking.
Emergency dispatch operators at 911 advised St. Croix police of the incident on Melvin Evans Highway about 8:15 p.m. According to the initial investigation, while the unidentified male victim was erecting a Capehart campaign sign, two unknown males armed with handguns emerged from the bushes and approached him, demanding money and jewelry.
The men then approached the senator who was inside the vehicle. The men ordered her out and stole the blue 2013 Jeep Wrangler. The suspects stopped a few feet up the road to pick up three more suspects who were hiding in the bushes before driving off in an eastward direction.
The stolen jeep had a license plate number CEP 352. It has Capehart campaign signs in the windows and Capehart campaign stickers on the bumpers.
Police Commissioner Rodney F. Querrard responded to the news of the robbery and carjacking by suspending all in-service training and ordering more officers to patrol the streets. “Community safety is our first priority,” Querrard said.
Querrard also lifted overtime restrictions currently in place and ordered "results and productivity" for the time worked, according to a statement from the commissioner’s office. Querrard said, "These criminals living among us must be stopped.”
He said, “This is our community and we must do everything possible to combat this total disregard for life and property."
Anyone with any information regarding this case is asked to call detectives at 712-6031, 712-6024, 911 or the anonymous Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-TIPS.