Police on St. Thomas are looking into the circumstances that they say led to the death of a Waste Management Authority worker on Friday.
The incident is being classified as a homicide.
Police Public Information Director Glen Dratte said officers were called after a lifeless person was found lying near a dumpster in the Bolongo area. WMA officials identified the man as 39-year-old sanitation technician Daryl Hodge.
“The caller stated that the male appeared to have been shot. Units from the Virgin Islands Police Department traveled and found an unresponsive Black male who appeared to have sustained gunshots to his body,” Dratte said.
Emergency medical technicians on scene determined Hodge did not have any vital signs.
Friday’s fatality marks the second time in 2023 that a government worker was killed while on the job. Fifty-four-year-old Alrick Thomas was shot and killed while collecting trash along the Virgin Islands Carnival Adults’ Parade route on April 29.
Thomas was on the job at the time for the Department of Public Works. Twenty-one-year-old Dion Johnson was arrested and awaiting trial for first-degree murder in connection with Thomas’ death.
Hodge was on the job at the time the fatal incident occurred, WMA Communications Director Lorna Minkoff said.
Hodge’s death marks St. Thomas’ 13th homicide of the year and brings the territory’s total to 24 since the start of 2023, according to the Source Homicide List.*
Anyone having information are asked to contact 911, the Major Crimes Unit at 340-642-8449 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222- 8476.
*The Source Homicide List is a chronological log of the homicides recorded in 2023 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as reported by the VIPD. Cases are broken down by island. While this listing is based on VIPD reports, the Source does not include suicides or vehicular homicides in its listing, which the police and some other media do. This can lead to a discrepancy in the number of incidents reported.
