A fatal shooting occurred in Sugar Estate, St. Thomas, on Wednesday. At approximately 5:52 p.m., concerned citizens alerted 911 about gunfire and a man down in the vicinity of First Street. Responding officers discovered an unresponsive Black male with multiple gunshot wounds, the V.I. Police Department reported.
Emergency Medical Technicians arrived shortly after and confirmed that the victim had no signs of life by 6:08 p.m. The victim was later identified by next of kin as 21-year-old Ja’haile Clendinen, according to the police report.
The incident led to significant traffic delays on St. Thomas late Wednesday afternoon as V.I. Police Department teams secured the scene and conducted their investigation.
Clendinen’s death marks the 14th homicide of the year on St. Thomas and the 24th for the territory, according to the Source Homicide List.* There have been 10 such deaths on St. Croix and none on St. John.
The Virgin Islands Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit is actively investigating this case. Authorities urge anyone with information to contact the VIPD at 340-774-2211, the Criminal Investigation Unit’s Major Crimes Division at 340-714-9823 or 340-714-9829 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
*The Source Homicide List is a chronological log of the homicides recorded in 2024 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as reported by the VIPD. Cases are broken down by island. While this listing is based on VIPD reports, the Source does not include suicides or vehicular homicides in its listing, which the police and some other media do. This can lead to a discrepancy in the number of incidents reported.
