Feb. 12, 2007 — A 24-year-old St. Thomas man wanted in connection with last Thursday’s shooting death of a police officer surrendered to Police Monday afternoon.
Acting Police Commissioner James McCall said Jermaine Paris, who had been hunted since last week, turned himself in to detectives of the V.I. Police Department's Major Crime Unit just before 3 p.m. Monday afternoon.
"In the presence of his attorney, Clive Rivers, Mr. Paris was arrested and charged with first-degree murder,” McCall said.
Police had described Paris as a suspect in the case since Thursday, when Police Officer Ariel Frett died after being shot on a Bjerge Gade roadway, a stone’s throw away from Pollyberg and Hospital Ground. (See "Veteran Police Officer Shot Dead in Hospital Ground.")
A 16-year-old person of interest to police remains hospitalized, recovering from gunshot wounds he sustained in the shooting.
Paris is being held without bail pending an advice-of-rights hearing in Superior Court Tuesday morning.
McCall praised the work of detectives of both the Major Crime Unit and the Criminal Investigation Bureau, who have worked tirelessly on the case, he said. And he had high praise for the community's renewed spirit of cooperation with the Police Department, according to a release from Government House Monday night.
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