Sept. 3, 2002 – A domestic disturbance between two brothers that escalated into a shooting close by a daycare and preschool complex in Anna's Retreat on Tuesday afternoon left one man undergoing emergency surgery and the other in police custody.
The shooting occurred around 2 p.m. in Hidden Valley, the result of a domestic disturbance in the area of Mom's Day Care and Pre-School in Hidden Valley. Brothers Bernard James and Khali James reportedly argued over why Khali James was not in school. According to police, as the altercation intensified, Bernard James fetched a gun, the brothers struggled over the weapon and Bernard James shot his brother in the arm, then fled.
Khali James was taken by ambulance to Roy L. Schneider Hospital with a gunshot wound to the right arm and injury to his scalp caused by the gunfire. Late Tuesday afternoon, Schneider Hospital administrator Maureen Venzen said the victim's condition was stable and he was undergoing surgery for the injury to his arm. "All I can tell you is that the victim is in the operating room," she said.
Officers at the scene of the gunfire seized the weapon believed to have been used in the shooting. After police searched for several hours for Bernard James, Investigation Bureau detectives arrested him and charged him formally with first-degree assault and possession of an unlicensed firearm. Bail was set at $100,000.
The recent spate of violent crime, which included the weekend shooting death of Travis Poleon by assailants who had abducted him, prompted Sen. Roosevelt David to renew his call for activation of the V.I. National Guard as a peace-keeping force in the territory. David said VING must be brought called up to augment Police Department crime-fighting efforts. "I'm very troubled with what is happening in the community," the senator said. "If this trend continues we are not going to have a community any more."
Police asked that anyone with information concerning the shooting call investigators at 715-5522 or emergency 911.
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