Shawn Hinds told me he couldn’t participate in the plan to kill me

Jun 05, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Adam Harris and I had countless differences while working as two senior operatives at Kaieteur News (KN). But there is a but. But after each quarrel, Adam and I got along in the friendliest way.
After his departure from KN, I never penned an adverse line against Adam. I saw an interview he did with Mark Benschop in which Adam said he won’t be surprised if he found out that the PPP is paying me. I replied to that. Since then, Adam and I have had a very heartening conversation. Adam knows I am not receiving any money from anyone. I don’t know if I have my price but so far no one has made an offer.
I will always remember what Adam did for me and I will never forget it. I was attacked on May 27, 2004 while reversing out of my garage at 5am. It seems that my attackers knew my routine because that was the time I left each morning for the seawall and National Park. I was struck on my head with a gun. I received some stitches for that.
My car was stolen. It was neatly parked on the parapet in Charlestown with absolutely nothing stolen although I had a very expensive stereo system and thousands of dollars in the glove compartment.
Adam through his use of his contacts told me who ordered the attack to scare me. It was a non-governmental person that I had penned a few unfavourable columns on. That person I forgave and he later made it up to me. Enter Shawn Hinds.
Mr. Hinds became one of the most feared men in Guyanese history. As an alleged well-established member of the phantom squad, the adventures of Mr. Hinds filled up the notebooks of journalists. I never saw him, never met him. He was charged in 2016 along with Kwame McCoy and Jason Abdulla for throwing a miasma substance on me in 2010. It was not faeces but that was the joke on me that Adam put in print and it has stuck.
On Tuesday morning, I was alone at the Alfresco gym in the National Park when Shawn Hinds appeared. He asked his girlfriend to sit in the car while he talked with me. Hinds said that there is only a tiny amount of information he can share with me on the 2010 attack.
He indicated that he stays out of the limelight, keeps to himself and doesn’t want people to come after him thinking that he is about to reveal all kinds of information. He intoned that he will only tell me two things, will be brief and I can write about it.
First is that he wants it to be recorded so his children and Guyanese can know that he saved my life. The plan was to kill me and he objected telling his co-conspirators that all Freddie Kissoon does is writes and after him, other will come and write, so what is the point in killing him. Mr. Hinds said he has done many things in life but killing a journalist for just writing is not something he could ever bring himself to do.
He explained it was his forceful rejection that led to the downgrading of the attack and it took the form of the thrown substance. He insisted that no one can contradict his version of what he is telling me. Mr. Hinds was persistent that I should be grateful he saved my life and I have his permission to state that publicly.
What do I make of the Shawn Hinds revelation? Did he save my life? If it is true, then I thank him because at the time, I had a daughter to take care of. But how do I know Mr. Hinds has been truthful with me? I don’t so I will move on to the second revelation.
Mr. Hinds wanted me to know he had nothing to do with the killing of the man who was the actual thrower of the substance. Mr. Hinds said that the moment Oswald Griffith made his confession, his fate was sealed and he had nothing to do with what happened to Griffith. Hinds walked away towards his girlfriend and I walked away towards my baby – my dog.
I knew Griffith was murdered. All of Guyana knew that. The moment he was killed, I began to dislike Khemraj Ramjattan intensely. Mr. Ramjattan was my personal friend. He was the Home Affairs minister. I expected him to mount a special operation to catch Griffith’s killers. He, neither the police did anything. I guess I was not important enough. I guess I never will be but I don’t care to be.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Shawn Hinds told me he couldn’t participate in the plan to kill me

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