The V.I. Police Department is looking for the identity of a suspect who can be seen burning a chicken alive in a video clip uploaded onto Facebook.
According to police, investigators learned Sept. 28 of a video that had been uploaded to the social media site by a user identified as "Blacks Lee." The video showed several individuals setting a young fowl ablaze.
The incident apparently occurred around 6:45 p.m. Sept. 26. The video clip was also uploaded to the Facebook Community Page titled “What’s Going on St. Thomas,” where it garnered more than 5,000 views.
There is a Facebook page for a person by that name who is described as a 20-year-old Christiansted resident. No such video is now on the site – the description makes it likely that it would have violated Facebook’s terms of use.
There is a Sept. 27 post in which "Blacks Lee" expresses surprise at people "going on suh" for a "chicken nugget," and notes that some people want to see him go to jail. One commenter called him "a vicious dude," but others made jokes and suggested the video would go viral.
According to police, the 47 seconds of video reveals that the incident took place in the Mutual Homes Housing Community in Frederiksted and shows a young man trying to use a disposable lighter to set a young fowl on fire. Moments later the chicken is engulfed in flames and runs a short distance onto a road, where it dies. On the video the suspect can be heard laughing and saying, "What ya fryin’, chicken."
Police asked the community’s assistance in identifying the young man in the still photo, taken from the online video footage.
Anyone with information on the incident can phone the Criminal Investigation Bureau at 340-778-2211 ext. 6102, or 911, or contact the anonymous tip service, Crime Stoppers USVI, at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.crimestoppersusvi.org.
