Jan. 19, 2002 – Police fatally shot a man who they said got behind the wheel of a patrol car and tried to run them down at North Star Village late Friday night.
St. Thomas Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty said on Sunday that the victim, Desmond Wade, died around 1 a.m. Saturday at Roy L. Schneider Hospital from a single gunshot wound to the neck.
He said the shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. Friday after police had responded to a report of an activated security alarm at a residence in the North Side residential area.
It was the second visit police made to the home on Friday, according to Carty. He said the officers found Wade throwing flammable liquid around the residence. As they approached him, Carty said, the man became belligerent and fled.
As three officers went looking for him, Carty said, "Wade gained access to the police unit, revved the engine and drove towards the three." He said the vehicle was a Chevy Blazer assigned to the Police Department's K-9 Corps.
Carty said the officers warned Wade to stop, and when he continued to drive toward them, "the officers pulled their weapons and fired at the individual."
Earlier Friday, Carty said, officers had responded to a call to 911 reporting a disturbance in which "someone was breaking louvers and pouring a flammable liquid around a residence." According to the deputy chief, police were looking for that person when the second call, about the alarm going off at the residence, came in to 911.
Last July, Wade was charged with the attempted murder and first-degree assault of a former girlfriend living in North Star Village. Police said he argued with the woman inside her apartment, doused her with gasoline, set her on fire and then fled. As Wade had broken her telephone, the woman could not call for help, but she was able to beat out the flames with her hands, police said. Neighbors called an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital and treated for second-degree burns on her back, hands and face.
Two days later, police arrested Wade. Judge Rhys Hodge set bail at $75,000. It was not immediately clear how long Wade had been out of jail or what the status is of that case. Nor could it be determined whether the home involved in Friday night's incident was the same one where he is alleged to have assaulted the woman seven months earlier.
Sgt. Annette Raimer, Police Department information officer, said it's standard practice for officers to keep their K-9 patrol cars running to circulate air for the police dog kept inside.
Carty said the officer who fired the shot that killed Wade will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation of the incident. The Major Crime Unit was also reported to be investigating the case.
The fatal shooting is the second on St. Thomas within a week and the second for the territory this year.
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