By Brian O’Connor
The Virgin Islands Daily News
ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands — A public vigil will be held Wednesday evening to commemorate a murdered firefighter, fire officials said.
The vigil will be held outside the Hotel Company fire station in Charlotte Amalie, where Gregory Louis, 50, died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head inflicted Thursday by an unknown assailant.
On Monday, balloons, flowers, candles, and other paraphernalia — some furnished by the booths in Vendors Plaza — decorated the bench where Louis was sitting when he was murdered.
One fire service official, interviewed Monday feet away from the bench, said his mood and the mood in the department are grim.
Deputy Chief Leonard Fabian remembered Louis as an easy-going man whose death has shaken to their cores the men and women manning the Hotel Company fire station at Fort Christian.
“Everybody is basically shocked,” he said. “We’re a family here. We sleep here. We eat here. We cook here. It’s like having it happen in your back yard.”
Police announced no major breaks in the case Monday, and the last update, released shortly after the shooting, said police have no suspects. Security cameras outside the fire department were inoperable at the time of the shooting, fire officials said previously.
Government officials have installed 18 cameras on St. Croix and 14 cameras on St. Thomas, said Sen. Novelle Francis Jr., a former police commissioner.
Legislators also have set aside about $500,000 in capital funds to update and replace security cameras when they break. Those funds had not been used, according to a list of $144 million worth of unfunded capital projects provided by the Public Finance Authority.
“As far as I know, they’re all working,” Francis said. “I’ve heard that they malfunction from time to time.”
Firefighters instituted a buddy system shortly after the killing, Fabian said. Fire Service officials directed questions about the particulars of the crime, including whether Louis was alone at the time of the shooting, to police.
“Everything is still under investigation,” said St. Thomas-St. John District Fire Chief Oral Wheatley.
The vigil is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday outside the Hotel Company fire station and is open to the public.
“We’re just trying to get the community out to show some support,” Fabian said.
The case remains under investigation, said V.I. Police Department spokesman Glen Dratte.
Louis’s homicide is the 43rd in the territory — including four vehicular homicides — so far this year. There have been 26 homicides on St. Thomas; 16 on St. Croix; and one on St. John.