A long-running feud between three St. Croix men ended up in gunfire outside a fund-raising event for Central High School early Sunday morning.
Soon after midnight Sunday, shots were fired near the Wreck Bar in Christiansted where more than 300 people, including Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II, local senators, other government officials and teachers, had gathered for a karaoke fund-raiser for Central High’s English department.
According to St. Croix Deputy Police Chief Novelle Francis, three men who were involved in a drive-by shooting last year apparently resumed their feud on Sunday. Francis said Felix Parrilla and Clint Sobratti, both 27, had words with Wilfredo Perez near the Wreck Bar when Perez pulled out a semi-automatic handgun a let loose a volley of shots.
After firing the shots, Perez ran into the Wreck Bar where he was subdued by an off-duty federal agent, Francis said. No one was injured by the shots or in the ensuing action.
The feud between Sobratti, Parilla and Perez goes back at least a year when Perez was targeted by the duo in a drive-by shooting in front of the Sunny Isle Kmart store. Perez and two bystanders, including a 12-year-old girl, were wounded in the incident.
Last December, a jury found Sobratti and Parilla not guilty in the Kmart drive-by. The pair told police Sunday morning that they were not involved in the incident.
Perez, meanwhile, was arrested for unauthorized possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
