On the evening of April 29, 2023, just after the Adults’ Parade had ended, someone gunned down Alrick Thomas as he was sweeping a street between the Lutheran Church and Emancipation Garden.
Children scattered as the suspected shooter, 21-year-old Dion Johnson, ran through Carnival Village and into Roosevelt Park, where he was apprehended, according to police reports.
Three years to the day later, the case remains open. Called a flight risk and danger to the community, Johnson, charged with first-degree murder, has remained behind bars as his attorneys and prosecutors argue over how to proceed.
A proposed July 2025 trial was postponed and has not yet been rescheduled.
Of the more than 125 legal filings in the case against Johnson, nothing new has been submitted to the Superior Court since Dec. 12, 2025.
Thomas, a Public Works Department employee, was 54 when shot to death. Witnesses told police they didn’t hear an altercation and, seemingly, the killer ran up, fired between four and eight rounds, and ran away. Police found multiple .40 caliber shell casings, the same caliber as the handgun police allegedly found on Johnson, according to court records. Johnson had a permit for the weapon.
For much of 2025, the attorneys argued over bullet fragments recovered from the crime. Forensic experts tested the handgun and found distinct similarities between marks on test bullets and two bullets found at the scene. Two other bullets did not seem to have these same marks, however. To what degree the bullets and the expert witnesses’ testimony will be admitted into evidence has not yet been decided.
Thomas’ death was one of 20 homicides on St. Thomas in 2023. The killing of the husband and father of six rocked the Public Works office, where he was a longtime and well-liked employee. Commissioner Derek Gabriel offered condolences to Thomas’ family, and described him as a “valued employee” of the department’s St. John Operations Division, where he has worked since October of 2016.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to Alrick’s family and friends, especially his wife and children,” Gabriel said in a written statement shortly after the killing. “It is more than unfortunate that this incident occurred, more so while he was performing work duties. Public servants must feel safe, regardless of their duties and responsibilities, while carrying out their work on behalf of the people of the territory.”
