Westmoreland’s most wanted killed
Published:Sunday | February 13, 2022 | 12:14 AMHopeton Bucknor - Sunday Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A man who the Westmoreland police say topped the parish’s most wanted list since October 2021 was fatally shot by the cops during an operation in Bluefields yesterday. An assault rifle and several rounds of ammunition were taken from him.
He has been identified as Andre Hinds, otherwise called ‘Bunny’, of a Savanna-la-Mar address.
Reports from the police are that shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday, a team of lawmen from the Westmoreland Police Division, assisted by the military, carried out an operation at a section of Bluefields known as Alldere in search of Hinds and other gunmen.
The operation led them to a forest area about 11 a.m., where they were met with gunfire. The lawmen returned the fire and, during the exchange, Hinds was fatally shot.
The security forces reportedly retrieved an AK-47 assault rifle, two AK-47 magazines, and several rounds of ammunition from the deceased.
One investigator told The Sunday Gleaner that Hinds was placed at the top of Westmoreland’s most wanted list last year, shortly after the September 30 double murder of 22-year-old Rajea Reid and 24-year-old Anothika Wedderburn, who were shot dead inside a shop on Hudson Street in Savanna-la-Mar about 6:55 p.m.
The senior cop also stated that another male resident of the community was shot and injured during the same incident.
“This man, Hinds, is no saint and he has been featured on top of the parish’s most wanted list since last October,” the cop stated.
“During the same period, his suspected partner in crime, 21-year-old Brandon Ewan, otherwise called ‘Shawn’ of Hudson Street, was also featured as wanted in connection with the same murders, but he later turned himself over to the Major Investigation Division.”
ONE OF THE WANTED 88
In a release yesterday, the Jamaica Constabulary Force Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) stated that Hinds was associated with the notorious Delete Gang, and was wanted for multiple cases of murder, shooting, arson and other crimes.
According to the CCU, Hinds was among the 88 men recently published as wanted across the island.
Police intelligence indicates that Hinds fled Savanna-la-Mar after the zone of special operations was declared in a section of the Westmoreland capital last month.
Investigators believe that he was hiding in the hills of Bluefields in a hut with two other gunmen, whose identities they believe they know and who were present at the time of yesterday’s shoot-out, but somehow managed to escape.
Western Jamaica has recorded four police fatal shootings since the start of the year – two in St James and two in Westmoreland – which are being investigated by the Independent Commission of Investigations.