40-year-old man fatally shot in the head on Mahogany Road

FREDERIKSTED — Police are investigating after a St. Croix man was fatally shot in the head on Mahogany Road on Wednesday afternoon.

Leon Thomas, 40, was positively identified by a family member as the homicide victim, the Virgin Islands Police Department said. The case began at 1:46 p.m., when 911 dispatchers began to get calls about an unresponsive male near Mahogany Road in Frederiksted, according to the VIPD. VIPD and VIFEMS were dispatched to the scene and found Thomas with a gunshot wound to the head. The first responders confirmed that Thomas had no signs of life. The death brings the total number of homicides reported in the territory so far this year to 40, including 21 on St. Thomas and 19 on St. Croix.

Thomas was one of two men arrested on October 2, 2022 after police said they were found “driving around with a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition,” Superior Court records show. At the time, Curtis Bernard was charged with unauthorized possession of a firearm and unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle, while Leon Thomas was charged with unauthorized possession of ammunition.