One man is dead and another is in custody after a shooting near Hospital Ground in St. Thomas on Friday according to VI Consortium, bringing the total homicide deaths in the territory for 2023 climbs to 8.

VI Consortium said in a report that the V.I. Police Department issued a statement indicating that someone had called 911 around 1:47 pm reporting that shots had been fired in the upper Hospital Ground area.

The man identified as 68-year-old Keith Jennings did not survive the sounds. Police said he was taken to the Schneider Regional Medical Center for emergency medical treatment of his upper body, but did not make it.

Meanwhile, shortly after the first 911 report, VI Consortium reported that a man called 911 to report that he was the one who had shot Mr. Jennings. Police then arrested 50-year-old Richardson Dangleben Jr. and charged him with first-degree murder.

The investigation into Mr. Jennings’s homicide is ongoing. Friday’s homicide was the eighth in the USVI for 2023, which had recorded four in the month of January alone.

The first homicide occurred on Jan. 15 in Market Square, St. Thomas, where a man was pronounced dead after being shot multiple times, while the second incident took place in Coki Point on Jan. 19, according to the police department.