ARMED CONFRONTATION AT STRIP CLUB: Banned St. Thomas Man Arrested With Fully Loaded, Chambered Sig Sauer Handgun At The Beehive
By JOHN McCARTHY / St. Croix Sun News Reporter
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A midnight standoff at a local adult entertainment venue ended in a felony weapons arrest after a barred patron allegedly returned to the property, threatened security, and was found carrying a fully loaded, chambered semi-automatic firearm in his waistband. The suspect, identified in unsealed Superior Court documents as Elvis Frederick, remains remanded to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections after failing to post a substantial fifty thousand dollar cash bail.
The high-stakes incident unfolded at approximately 3:17 a.m. on Friday, June 13, 2026, when Police Officers Yoelie Emmanuel and M. Woodley received an emergency dispatch to respond to the Beehive Strip Club. Callers reported a volatile situation involving a male patron who had been previously banned from the establishment but was flatly refusing to leave the premises. Upon arriving at the scene, responding officers made immediate contact with venue security guard Alex Dorset. Dorset informed the officers that Frederick had been officially banned from the property approximately two weeks prior after management discovered him in possession of two firearms on the premises.
According to sworn statements, Frederick breached the security perimeter on Friday morning and refused repeated commands from staff to exit the property. The situation rapidly escalated into physical intimidation when Frederick allegedly pressed his body directly against Dorset and explicitly threatened to "shell him down," a local colloquialism for a shooting. During the close-quarters physical contact, the security guard detected the unmistakable shape and weight of a hidden firearm pressed against Frederick’s waistline, prompting an immediate tactical intervention by the arriving police units.
Officers Emmanuel and Woodley confronted Frederick directly on the floor of the venue. When questioned by Officer Emmanuel whether he was currently carrying a weapon, Frederick look the officer in the eye and lied, stating that he was not. Recognizing the extreme volatile nature of the complaint and the danger posed by a large crowd gathered inside the club, officers immediately placed Frederick in handcuffs for officer safety and escorted him away from the patrons towards a waiting patrol vehicle.
The suspect inadvertently exposed his own hidden firepower during the walk to the cruiser. As Frederick began twisting and wiggling the lower portion of his body in an attempt to resist the escort, his shirt rode up slightly, allowing Officer Emmanuel to spot the distinct black handle of a handgun protruding from his waistband. Officer Woodley immediately intercepted the weapon, removing a black Sig Sauer P320 9mm handgun from an inside-the-waistband holster.
Forensic Crime Scene Technician D. Mahoney processed the scene at 4:02 a.m., confirming that the weapon was fully operational with sixteen live rounds loaded into the magazine and a seventeenth round resting directly in the chamber. A secondary search of Frederick's pockets uncovered an additional extended magazine packed with seventeen more live 9mm rounds. A rapid database check confirmed Frederick does not hold a valid territorial license to carry firearms in the Virgin Islands, leading Assistant Attorney General Brenda Scales to sign off on formal felony charges.
