Former cop, Shawn Hinds has admitted in a televised interview that he was part of a “death squad” which was responsible for the murders of criminals during the crime spree which gripped the country following the 2002 Mash day jailbreak.
In the interview with Travis Chase of HGP Nightly News’ Hinds, a shadowy figure often linked to the underworld, said that as a member of the death squad he received instruction from the late Axel Williams, who was reputed to be the head of the squad.
“Years ago they said I was part of a killing squad. I can’t deny that. I can’t sit here and deny that…If I wasn’t a part of a killing squad this country wouldn’t a got law and order…. because there was Shawn Brown, Dale Moore and….Chip Teeth”, he declared in the interview.
His confession will put the former PPP/C government under greater pressure to admit what its leading officials knew of this squad and whether they had officially sanctioned it.
Hinds had often in the past denied criminal links and his confession will be seen in some quarters as a bid to be useful to the new administration. In the last decade of the PPP/C’s tenure in office, Hinds had been close to several senior government officials and had been in attendance at high-profile events. Most recently, he served as bodyguard for controversial former acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba who was close to the former PPP/C government.
Hinds said in the interview that there was a difference between the death squad and the phantom squad. The phantom squad was closely associated with now convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan.
‘Phantom and death squad was too different thing…there was a phantom and a death squad according to my understanding” he clarified, adding that he was part of a police-sanctioned death squad.
“I was on a death squad. The boss was a man named Axel Williams who I worked under…. Late at night you would see people ….burn up people in car on the seawall and we used to go after these people including the police! Not we alone…the police was part of it! We used to get guns from the police …I used to go uplift a gun from CID headquarters, a machine gun; so this thing was not no one-sided affair … I operating on me own or me and Axel Williams operating on we own ..We was guided and…in communication with senior people from CID headquarters”, he told Chase. Williams himself was killed in a hail of bullets in a hit reportedly orchestrated by those who had controlled the killing squad.
While Hinds would not state whether anyone from the past government had links or direct input into the death squad he stressed that the squad received orders from members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
“I can tell you this, all my orders came from CID headquarters and there is evidence to this day. I have communication with me and people; communicating saying what they need to be done and how it need to be done, the kind of guns that need to use and what mustn’t be done and how you must do it and don’t do this one like this; don’t left he in the streets and when the shit hit the fan I alone get charge…I wasn’t a squealer; I bear me chafe; go in jail…nobody never give me a $5,000…I pay for everything”.
Hinds has had numerous run-ins with the law since his departure from the GPF in 2004 but has somehow managed to escape conviction on any serious crime. He was charged with the January 5th 2004 murder of Shafeek Bacchus whose brother George Bacchus, a self-confessed death squad informer was also gunned down days before he was to testify before a commission of enquiry into allegations that then Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj had been associated with a death squad.
Several media reports at the time quoted George Bacchus as identifying several individuals including Hinds as being members of the death squad. The High Court eventually cleared Hinds of those charges. It was the killing of Shafeek Bacchus which gave the country its first insight into allegations that there was a death squad in operation targeting criminals.
While the Guyana Police Force and the then PPP/C government have always denied any involvement with the “death squad”, Stabroek New had previously reported that Axel “Williams had been found to have made at least 118 calls to a mobile telephone that was used by then Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj over a twelve-day period at the height of which six unexplained murders occurred. From all that the public knows, it appears that Gajraj was in regular communication with Williams up to the time the latter was murdered on December 10, 2003.”
As evidence mounted that Gajraj was aware of the activities of the death squad a Presidential Commission of Inquiry was constituted to determine whether the Minister had “been involved in promoting, directing or otherwise engaging in activities which have involved the extra-judicial killing of persons.” Though cleared by the commission, public outcry and international pressure led to Gajraj being removed as minister. He was later appointed High Commissioner to India. The terms of reference of the commission of inquiry had been described as too narrow.
Hind’s confessions come just as the GPF is making strides in solving the murder of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing. Crum-Ewing was shot dead on March 10 in Diamond, East Bank Demerara, where he was urging residents to vote against the incumbent PPP/C at the May 11th elections.
He was shot five times, including three times to the head.
For weeks prior to his death, he had held a one-man protest outside the office of the then Attorney General Anil Nandlall, calling for his resignation over controversial statements he made during a telephone conversation with a Kaieteur News reporter that was made public.
Stabroek News had previously reported that “another individual” who may have hired the suspected trigger man, is being sought by the police. The trigger man is currently on remand after being charged with having an unlicensed firearm last week. An illegal gun found in the man’s Georgetown home last week Monday was matched to the Crum-Ewing crime scene by ballistics tests.
In the interview Hinds vigorously denies having anything to do with Crum-Ewing’s death.
“I can’t tek dah, I can’t live with dah….me ain’t got nothing fo do wid dah” he told Chase.
Among other cases, Hinds had been held in connection with the gunning down of journalist Ronald Waddell in Subryanville in 2006.
