Warlock vendetta claims second victim… Youth shot dead

Sep 01, 2015 News

Just hours before a gun amnesty began for the turning in of illegal firearms, gunmen walked into a yard in East Ruimveldt and riddled a 23-year-old man.

Kellon Hinds, called ‘Baje,’ of Phase Two, East Ruimveldt, was shot in the throat, chest, abdomen, right shoulder and left hand around 22.00 hrs yesterday.

Hinds, who had survived a previous attempt on his life, was reportedly in a yard in East Ruimveldt when the men entered and fired several shots at him before fleeing.

Hinds died a few minutes later at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

Eyewitnesses allege that one of the gunmen is a relative of another East Ruimveldt man, who was gunned down last May in ‘Warlock’, East Ruimveldt. He is believed to have been the victim of an ongoing gang feud.

Last June, the same man shot Shellon Hinds in the stomach during a dispute. The alleged gunman was charged with attempted murder, discharging a loaded firearm and armed robbery, allegedly committed against Hinds and another man in Agricola.

However, the case against him was dismissed after Hinds and the other victim declined to give evidence.

The execution-style killing has pushed this year’s homicide to 103 in eight months. It is the seventeenth such murder. Police had reported a 100 percent increase in execution killings up to the end of last July, in comparison with the same period last year.

Hind’s murder came just hours before the beginning of Government’s one-month amnesty aimed at reducing the number of illegal firearms from the streets.

Under the amnesty, persons are offered the opportunity to surrender any firearm, ammunition or explosive to the Commissioner of Police at listed police stations or to any police officer during the period September 1 to September 30.

Between January and last July, police recovered 74 illegal firearms, including a sub-machine gun, 43 pistols, 18 revolvers, five shotguns, six rifles and a pen-gun. This compares to 46 illegal firearms that were recovered unto this time last year.