Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Steve Merai is confident that the police will clear his name in the wake of allegations being made by self-confessed death squad member Shawn Hinds linking him to the execution of political activist and journalist Ronald Waddell.
Hinds, a former murder accused, made the allegation during an interview with HGPTV Nightly News that was broadcast on Wednesday. Hinds implicated Merai and another policeman, whom he said were involved in the January 30th, 2006 killing, which took place outside of Waddell’s Subyranville home.
“I can’t say anything. What do you want me to say?” Merai told Stabroek News when asked for a reaction to the allegations.
Asked whether he was at all concerned about the allegations, he said no and pointed out that back in 2006 the murder had been thoroughly investigated by local police.
On the issue of whether he would be seeking legal advice given the seriousness of the allegations being made, he said, “I am waiting on the police… I have confidence in the CID [Criminal Investigation Department], the Crime Chief, [and] the Commissioner. I have confidence in the justice system.”
Merai said that he did not want to comment on the matter without first giving the police a chance to investigate.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum yesterday urged Hinds to turn himself in to assist with the investigation of allegations levelled against named individuals.
“I am urging Mr. Hinds to turn himself in to the police to assist with the investigation related to the serious allegations levelled against a few named individuals during an interview with a journalist,” Blanhum told Stabroek News.
Blanhum, who has repeatedly stressed that Hinds was wanted for questioning about “a serious offence,” noted that Hinds, a former policeman, should be fully aware of the standard procedure in cases such as his. “Investigators will require his presence to submit a detailed statement in relation to these matters. At this point in time, without that statement, the Guyana Police Force can only treat the allegations in the public domain as information,” he said.
Nevertheless, he noted, earnest efforts will be made to investigate the allegations.
Blanhum said that despite his request to HGPTV, he is yet to receive a copy of the interview.
According to reports on the death of Waddell, 57, a dark-coloured car took the gunmen to the scene, where they were apparently watching his movements from the seawall. Police reports stated that as soon as Waddell stepped into his car, two gunmen ran across the road and opened fire on the vehicle. They then ran back across the road, jumped into their car and sped away east along the highway.
Hinds admitted in the interview that he was hired to kill Waddell but said policemen beat him to the task. He said that with such jobs, multiple persons are hired and it was all about who would get the job done first.
Conflicting accounts
Hinds said that on the day in question, he waited outside of Waddell’s home for the perfect opportunity to get the job done.
“I deh pon de seawall sit down in me car…I get a call, ‘Hey de man coming.’ By de time da man come out de yard… a blue 212 swing from Sheriff Street and all I heard is dudududududu and I just lie down in meh car suh,” he said in the interview.
He also said he was in possession of video and other evidence to corroborate his account.
Hinds said too that information he had gotten that Waddell had left his yard was false as based on his monitoring the man was inside of his home. At the time he was shot he was preparing to leave.
Merai told Stabroek News that one should look at the disparity between what Hinds is saying and what was revealed in the testimony given in 2009 by Selwyn Vaughn, an informant for the US government. The retired cop said that Hinds’ statements also contradict what local investigators would have gathered.
Vaughn was a professed former member of Roger Khan’s “Phantom gang.” This gang was said to have comprised former policemen under his direction.
Hinds’ account differs from that told by Vaughn on the witness stand in the United States as it relates to the number of persons involved in the shooting and also the modus operandi of the killers.
Vaughn, who said that it was Khan who ordered the execution of Waddell, testified that he was in a Burgundy AT 192 motor car when four other named members of the squad turned up and shot Waddell. He told the court he had been the lookout man who was tracking Waddell and he called Khan on his cell phone that night and reported that the talk show host had left his residence and his car was idling on the roadway. Within minutes, four members of Khan’s squad, all former members of the GPF named by Vaughn, turned up and shot Waddell.
At the time that Waddell was killed, Merai was still a member of the Guyana Police Force.
Hinds during the interview had alleged that the police formed an alliance with the death squad and hunted down criminals. He said that he used to go to CID to uplift weapons and was in communication with senior ranks of CID Headquarters.
Shortly after the killing, police had arrested Hinds and two relatives of dead ‘hitman’ Axel Williams, but the men were all released. Hinds has said that Williams was his “boss” and the head of the death squad.
Hinds decided to go public with the allegations due to his fears that attempts are afoot to frame him for the murder of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing, who was gunned down in March.
