Traffic accident ends in gunfire, shooter pleads guilty

~~Adz:Left~~St. Croix, USVI – A Sion Farm man has pled guilty to a single charge of discharging a firearm after he entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors on Friday.

65-year-old Melrose Baptiste was initially arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and aiming or discharging a firearm when he fired a gun at several young men in Estate Plessen last April. Baptiste had pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges at the time.

According to official court documents, on April 21st, 2008, a female police officer witnessed the incident as she drove along the Queen Mary Highway. She reportedly saw Baptiste fire a gun near a service station which prompted her to pull over and command Baptiste to drop the weapon.

Upon his apprehension, Baptiste reportedly told responding police officers that a car had hit his vehicle and the driver had refused to stop. He then followed the liable vehicle to the service station when several young men exited and approached him.

Baptiste continued to say that one of the men appeared to be holding an object in his hand and in a pre-emptive strike, discharged two rounds from his revolver in their general direction.

No one was injured during the altercation and Baptiste was released on $75,000 bail. He will appear before Judge Brady on October 15th for sentencing.