Man Who Allegedly Brutally Assaulted Grandmother Charged With Elder Abuse, Assault

ST. THOMAS — A man was charged with felony assault and elder abuse after his badly-injured grandmother turned up at a neighbor’s doorstep seeking help.

According to court documents, on Wednesday, police were dispatched to a residence in Anna’s Retreat after receiving reports of an assault. Responding officers met with a resident who told them they had been in their garden when they saw Roquan Smith come home from work, wearing a yellow polo shirt. He first entered his own apartment before emerging and going upstairs to the unit where his grandmother lived. The neighbor recalled hearing some noise emanating from his grandmother’s apartment, but said it wasn’t very loud. Shortly afterwards, Smith reportedly emerged from the unit, tossed a white plastic bag over the fence, and entered his apartment once more.

The neighbor went inside their own house and called Smith’s grandmother to check on her, but the call reportedly went straight to voicemail. They told police that they then settled to watch television and work on a puzzle, when someone started banging loudly on the door without responding to a request to identi