A 14-year-old St. Thomas boy died Monday after being shot in the face one week ago at the St. John Festival village.
Kishawn Daly of Oswald Harris Court died from his injuries at 3:30 a.m. Monday, while on life support at Roy L. Schneider Hospital.
No has been arrested for the shooting, and the V.I. Police Department is still investigating the incident which occurred around 12:07 a.m. July 7, shortly after the official closing of the St. John Festival.
"We are working diligently in these cases and always requesting any information we can get," acting Police Chief Jose Garcia said Monday afternoon.
In anticipation of large crowds, an unprecedented number of police officers were assigned to the village, both the night of the shootings and throughout the St. John Festival, Garcia said.
"We've never had so much police coverage. We had more than adequate police on St. John and in the village," he said. "We try to cover all the major events with proper police coverage but sometimes, when a person decides to pull a weapon like this, there's not much you can do."
While police presence discourages crime, it does not deter some who are intent on committing violent acts, he said.
Daly's homicide, the first on St. John since 1997, was one of several incidents to mar carnival celebrations on both islands this year.
Minutes after Daly was shot, two other individuals were stabbed at the village; shortly after that, a 16-year-old boy was shot nearby.
Daly and the 16-year-old victim were subject to the 10 p.m. curfew for children under 18, which means they should either have been home or accompanied by an adult at the times they were shot.
"We enforce the curfew, but we're also trying to encourage parents to make sure these kids are home and off the streets, or that they're accompanied by a responsible adult," Garcia said.
Back in April, 28-year-old Ferlyn Harris died after being shot in the back of the head at the St. Thomas Carnival village. A 17-year-old who was also shot that night was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
Daly's killing is the sixth homicide in the St. Thomas-St. John district this year.
