Self-confessed death squad member Shawn Hinds has admitted that he was hired to kill journalist and television talk show host Ronald Waddell back in 2006 but said that two policemen included a now retired senior cop beat him to the task.
As more of an explosive interview continues to be aired on HGPTV Nightly News, Hinds was not shy in naming the alleged killers even as he made it clear that he was in possession of evidence to corroborate what he was saying.
Speaking to Nightly News’ Travis Chase, the former policeman says that he was given the contract to carry out the hit on Waddell but like crimes of that nature other persons were also hired and it was all about who would get the job done first.
He said that on the day in question he waited outside of Waddell’s home in Subryanville for the perfect opportunity to get the job done. He said that the information that he had gotten was that Waddell was out and that he was to carry out the task when he returned home. However Waddell was in his home and was preparing to leave his yard when he was shot and killed.
“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 said that his story could be corroborated with video and other pieces of evidence. He said too that even though there was a phantom and a death squad in operation there could have been outside killers. He insisted that it was the rogue police who killed Waddle.
“Well like ah tell yuh I know who killed Waddell. A policeman…A tall policeman too. These police don’t fight crime. These people don’t investigate crime. They people does call me and lock me up. I don’t want to be a cochore (informant) but all them thing I do, I do it and done with it ….and now I living a peaceful life”, he declared.
He then named the policemen. “Two policemen were in the vehicle when Waddell dead. A man named (name given) and a man named (name given), he said.
Back in 2009 Selwyn Vaughn, informant for the US government had confessed that drug kingpin Roger Khan ordered the execution of Waddell. Khan was known to have policemen in his employ particularly during the crime spree period.
Vanghn was a professed former member of Khan’s “Phantom gang”. Hinds in the interview with Chase had said that the “phantom and death squads” were two different things.
Waddell, 57, was killed in January 2006. According to reports at the time, a dark-coloured car took the gunmen to the scene, where they were apparently watching Waddell’s movements from the seawall. According to reports, 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.
Shortly after the killing police had arrested freed murder accused, 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’ story differs from that told by Vaughn on the witness stand not only as it relates to the number of persons involved in the shooting but also the modus operandi of the killers.
Vaughn 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 that time the former senior cop named by Hinds was still a member of the Guyana Police Force.
Meanwhile, Hinds during the interview with Chase denied any involvement in the execution-style killing of former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh, his relatives and a security guard on April 22, 2006.
“I had nothing to do with Satyadeow Sawh murder. Nothing!” he stressed.
Around 12.15 am seven masked gunmen dressed in military fatigues invaded the minister’s LBI home and riddled him, his two siblings and his security guard Curtis Robertson with bullets.
Sawh’s brother in law Bob Persaud was adamant that the then PPP government was covering up the shooting and had expressed a belief that Roger Khan had vital information on the killings. He made unsuccessful attempts through the Canadian government to access Khan.
