The woman being sought by police for questioning in relation to the circumstances surrounding the death of Earland Hinds, who threw himself under a truck on Saturday, is still in hiding.
When approached by this newspaper yesterday, the dead man’s sister Earlette Hinds related that whenever the police go into the Tiger Bay area enquiring of the woman’s whereabouts, she flees the area or goes into immediate hiding.
The grieving sister said that a post-mortem examination is scheduled to be conducted on her brother’s remains on Wednesday and plans are being made to take his body to Coomacka, North West District for burial some time this weekend.
In a very tearful voice, Earlette related that it was the family’s decision to have Hinds’ body taken back to the North West District for burial, since that is where he is originally from.
Hinds was killed when he threw himself under a moving ten-wheel truck just outside the City Constabulary Training Complex opposite N&S Mattai Supermarket on Water Street.
The 29-year-old of Queen Street, Cummingsburg (Tiger Bay), had only minutes earlier been dealt a blow with a heavy brick by a woman whose son complained to her that he had been struck by the man.
In an initial interview on Saturday, Earlette said she had heard someone shout, “Buss he head man, buss he head.” She said that she rushed out and saw her brother, who suffered from mental illness, standing with blood dripping from his head.
“When I ask he wah happen he tell me, ‘you all don’t worry with me man, I gon dead just now,’” she related.
As she probed further for details, she was told by children who stood around as well as a few adults that a child had been seen pelting the man with a brick and he then threw something at the child.
However, the youngster complained to his mother and within minutes the irate woman in a rage lifted up a clay brick covered with concrete and dealt the man a blow to his head while he lay on the stairway of St Thomas Presbyterian Church, located at the junction of Hope and Queen streets.
Hinds said she went to look at the object that was used to hit her brother and by the time she returned she saw everyone assembled across the street and her brother lying motionless, with a truck parked nearby. “They say he jumped under the truck and the wheel go over he head,” she said. While her brother was “not too right upstairs,” she maintained that he was never a person who troubled people in the area. However, he was the target of some youths in the area who would torment him from time to time.