Photo: Lindon Hinds, deceased

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Dec. 27, 2022

Early on Tuesday morning, December 27, a Pitter Street resident, Lindon Mark Hinds, 30, was killed by a gunman who lured him out of his house by shouting “police” at his door.

It is being reported that around 1:45 that morning, Hinds was at home sleeping with his common-law wife at his home on Pitter Street when they heard knocks at his front door, and someone yelled “police”. Hinds, who had been charged previously for violent crimes, probably found the claims that police officers were at his door so early in the morning to be credible, so he got up and opened the door. When he did, a gunman shot him several times.

Hinds’ motionless body was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), where he was pronounced dead at 3:55 a.m. His body lies at the KHMH morgue, where it will undergo a post-mortem examination.

Hinds, also known as “Monsta”, was, known in his neighborhood as a gunman, and was believed to be responsible for previous shooting incidents, including the death of a 5-year-old girl who was killed in 2020 on the same street on which Hinds resided and on which his own murder occurred. The child—Kia Herbert, an infant one student at the Unity Presbyterian Primary School—had been fatally wounded at about 2:00 in the morning in March of that year while sleeping with her mother, Frances Herbert. The shots that penetrated the walls of the bedroom and wounded little Kia had been fired by a gunman who was standing outside the house on Pitter Street.

The child’s grandmother had told reporters, “All ah we mi di lay down on the floor last night, and we gone sleep and like after 2:00 we just wake up to gunshot. We mi feel like dehn just shot up the house. We neva know anybody get shot. Dah when my daughter jump up and ih see the blood and say ‘Mommy, mi baby get shot’. Then she lift up and scream and say ‘Mommy, Mommy’ two times, and from there ih just gone. Ih close ih eye, and my daughter say, ‘Mommy, call the ambulance for mi. Mi baby get shot and ih look like ih di dead’.” (News5 transcripts)

Baby Kia had been wounded in the abdomen, back, and leg and was declared dead after being taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Hinds and another man had been charged for that heinous shooting which took the 5-year-old girl’s life and wounded her mother, whose injuries were classified as grievous harm.

While many believe that the murder of Hinds on Tuesday was an act of retaliation for his suspected role in the murder of the child, the communications director for the Belize Police Department, ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, told local reporters that the police must carry out an investigation before concluding that the two incidents are linked.

“One, we haven’t established the true motive as yet. So, we wouldn’t want to say at this early in the investigation what we believe. What we will do and we have done already is put measures into place to stop any retaliation from his group. As I said at this point, at this time we do not know the true identity of the assailant but we have everything in place to prevent any form of retaliation,” he said.

ASP Yearwood said that several persons have been detained for questioning in connection with Hinds’ murder.