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A 14-year-old girl on a shore stop during a weeklong Carnival cruise was shot to death Monday in the U.S. Virgin Islands as she toured St. Thomas in a tour bus with her family, authorities said.
Police and island tourism officials on Tuesday afternoon announced an arrest in the shooting and said the incident was isolated and the islands remain a safe destination for tourists.
Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines immediately suspended its own excursions in the area where the shooting occurred, though the family was not on a cruise-sponsored shore trip.
The girl, identified by authorities as Lizmarie Perez Chapparro, left San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday with her family on the Carnival Victory. The popular Caribbean destination of St. Thomas was the first stop of the seven-day cruise for the 2,758-passenger ship.
As the family traveled past the Coki Point Cemetery in an open-air safari bus, gunfire broke out between someone in a red Honda Civic and a man attending a burial at the cemetery, police said. The teen victim was caught in the crossfire and rushed to an area hospital, where she died.
