In a month marked by public anxiety and raw emotion over a string of recent homicides, a bill seeking to establish a Virgin Islands Gun Violence Awareness Week came under the Legislature’s microscope Monday, sparking a wider and more urgent conversation about the breadth of the crisis and the government’s response to it.
The proposal — Bill No. 36-0090, introduced by Sen. Angel Bolques Jr., would formally designate the week beginning the Monday before the first Friday in June as a time for territorywide engagement, education, and reflection on gun violence. Framed as a symbolic measure aligned with National Gun Violence Awareness Month, the bill quickly became a lightning rod for senators’ broader concerns.
“It was supposed to be a commemoration bill,” said Antonio Emanuel, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, in a follow-up with the Source Tuesday. “But I knew they would ask more because of the weekend we just had.”
The past weekend had seen multiple shootings — three fatal — some in broad daylight, in commercial areas, near homes, and in full view of families. Emanuel, testifying in support of the bill Monday, was met with questions from lawmakers about the Office’s role in addressing not just public education, but prevention in the face of escalating, visible violence.
Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, who submitted written testimony in support of the measure, also noted the grim urgency of the discussion. “Gun violence continues to cast a long and devastating shadow over families and communities throughout the territory,” Brooks wrote. As of mid-June, 18 gun-related homicides had been recorded in the Virgin Islands. “This act is not only timely, it is necessary.”
Brooks cited the importance of a formalized week to “honor those we have lost, stand with survivors, engage in meaningful dialogue, and deepen our collective resolve to prevent further bloodshed.”
But senators, rattled by what many described as a tangible sense of fear among the public, pushed for answers that went beyond designations. What, they asked, is actually happening to prevent violence on the ground?
Emanuel, in his follow-up conversation with the Source Tuesday, offered a detailed and unvarnished look at what his office sees — and is up against.
“Our young people are navigating extortion, retaliatory violence, and domestic abuse at levels that mimic what you’d see in larger cities,” he said. “People are demanding answers, but the reality is more complicated.”
According to Emanuel, the majority of recent homicides have been targeted, driven by personal vendettas, financial disputes, and “mafia-type extortion” tactics, where young people are asked to pay fees for protection or territory access, which Brooks also underscored during a recent VIPD presser.
Meanwhile, Emanuel said his office has documented cases involving drug turf extortion, violent domestic disputes, and robbery-for-status crimes, like jewelry thefts. These aren’t random acts of violence, he said — they’re calculated, often retaliatory, and tied to long-standing social and economic tensions.
To confront them, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention is operating far beyond its original scope. Emanuel described a small staff taking on responsibilities that, in most jurisdictions, would be spread across several nonprofit organizations: running parenting classes, helping to restore and visit in-school suspension programs to teach conflict de-escalation and emotional regulation, and delivering leadership training at summer camps. They sponsor snacks for children who might not otherwise eat, help parents safely turn over firearms to police, and talk to high schoolers about peer pressure, anger management, and the long-term consequences of violence, he said.
His office also works with rehabilitating the incarcerated, connecting them to employers willing to hire people with prior convictions. In the few months, Emanuel said his team successfully intervened in at least 15 situations where individuals or groups were preparing to retaliate violently, and convinced them to stand down.
“We actually get in between people that are fighting with each other when we know about it,” he said. “We’ll get those two people together and have a sit-down.”
On top of direct engagement, Emanuel serves on five territorial boards — reentry, homelessness, state advisory councils — all of which he says are integral to confronting the root causes of violence: trauma, housing insecurity, unemployment, and broken systems. His office is also working closely with the Education Department, Labor Department, Corrections, Health, and Human Services, although he admits collaboration with VIPD is “not as much as I would like.”
Still, he emphasized that for all the social factors involved — poverty, underfunded schools, a struggling health care system — every act of violence is ultimately a personal decision. “We can have the longest conversation about the ills of society,” he said. “But it still boils down to: you don’t get what you want, you act out violently. That’s what we’re trying to change.”
He recalled recently teaching school monitors on St. Croix how to spot trauma, describing students couch-surfing from house to house, showing up to school unwashed, carrying burdens they can’t name. “When you yell at them for not having a clean shirt, you’re triggering something you don’t even know about,” he said. “They come to school to feel safe. But they’re also coming to vent.”
Structure, Funding and Hope
Across the mainland, similar offices have piloted creative models with measurable results, offering examples of what’s possible with targeted investment. In Richmond, California, the Advance Peace program uses mentoring and monthly stipends to steer high-risk individuals away from violent behavior. With a modest core staff and an annual budget of roughly $1 million, the program pairs individuals identified as likely to be involved in gun violence with outreach workers who provide life coaching, support services, and structured alternatives. An evaluation in Stockton found that the program returned between $47 and $123 in community benefit for every dollar spent.
In New York City and Oakland, “Cure Violence” initiatives operate through neighborhood-based organizations that deploy trained violence interrupters — often former offenders themselves — to mediate conflicts before they escalate. New York’s model has grown into a citywide Crisis Management System backed by more than $100 million over several years and includes over 30 local partner organizations, each employing full-time outreach teams embedded in high-risk communities.
Connecticut has taken a coordinated, statewide approach. Cities like Waterbury have layered community policing strategies with social services, mental health outreach, and reentry programming, while the state’s Department of Public Health now allocates dedicated funding to city-based violence prevention units. In 2024, Waterbury officials applied for $2 million in prevention grants to formalize partnerships between hospitals, police, and youth advocates, emphasizing not just enforcement but healing.
These programs vary in design but share key traits: sustained local funding, dedicated staff, and multiagency coordination. In many cases, outreach teams alone number in the dozens, supported by case managers, analysts, and community liaisons. By comparison, the Virgin Islands’ Office of Gun Violence Prevention — though increasingly active – remains small in size and reliant on year-to-year funding, without the scale or embedded networks seen in larger jurisdictions.
Since its launch in 2020, the Virgin Islands Office of Gun Violence Prevention has been supported by a combination of federal and local funds, but the territory’s investment began earlier and has grown steadily. In fiscal year 2021, the office received an initial $225,000 from the General Fund, followed by $539,187 in fiscal year 2022. That same year, the federal government awarded an additional $2 million through the American Rescue Plan Act to expand staffing and contract expert support. By fiscal year 2023, the office had secured another $275,000 in General Fund support, supplementing earlier ARPA awards that totaled over $3 million across two years.
More recently, in fiscal year 2024, the office requested $520,989 to sustain and expand its programming. That ask has increased in the proposed fiscal year 2025 executive budget, which includes $891,465 in total — $666,465 of which would come from the General Fund, marking the highest local contribution to date.
Asked what he’d be able to do with more resources, Emanuel said he’d start by building a network of nonprofit partners to help carry the load. “We need more credible messengers — people with clout in their communities who can redirect young people,” he said. These are individuals, often former offenders themselves, who understand the street dynamics and have the trust needed to intervene before violence erupts.
He’d also invest in physical improvements to some of the territory’s most neglected housing communities — places where broken infrastructure and a lack of resources send their own message. “Right now, too many of them look like war zones,” he said. “No playgrounds. No community centers. No trash cans. And that impacts how people see themselves, how they behave, and how they treat others.”
Ultimately, Emanuel said, the solution isn’t about a single office or bill — it’s about coordinated investment across systems: education, mental health, housing, jobs, and public safety. “We’re doing what we can with what we’ve got,” he said. “But if we’re serious about stopping this violence, we all have to be in.”
St. Croix Source
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