In a somber ceremony held amid cool breezes deep in the Western Cemetery Friday, dozens of V.I. National Guard soldiers, friends and family gathered to mourn Guard Spc. Lewayne Fraser, who was slain in downtown Charlotte Amalie in the predawn darkness of Nov. 1 two days before a scheduled deployment to Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay.
“Today, with saddened hearts, we buried one of our young and brightest soldiers,” said Maj. Gen. Renaldo Rivera, adjutant general of the V.I. National Guard, after the funeral Friday.
“May the public continue to pray for his family as we are here in the National Guard,” he said.
Fraser and Tortola resident Victor Smith were traveling in the area of Garden Street and Nye Gade in a white vehicle about 3:45 a.m. on that Saturday morning when at least one suspect outside opened fire, killing Fraser and Smith with multiple gunshots.
During Friday’s ceremony, seven National Guard soldiers fired a 21-gun salute to their fallen comrade, sending birds scattering among the trees and graves of the crowded cemetery.
From behind a plastered grave, a lone and nearly hidden trumpeter meted out the all-too familiar notes of “Taps,” which hung over the mourners like a cloud.
After soldiers carefully folded an American flag, a platoon sergeant presented the triangular reminder to his family with a steady salute.
Fraser’s murder remains unsolved and his killer or killers roam free. Police ask anyone in the community who knows anything about the double homicide to call Major Crime Bureau detective Sgt. Lionel Bess at 715-5545, or by cell phone at 642-8449 or Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-TIPS.
