LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — As he prepared for a homeowners’ association meeting last month, Dr. Mahmoud Yousef Hindi packed a loaded revolver and six spare bullets in his briefcase, told his family to have dinner without him and walked down the street to a community center.
Once there, Hindi told Louisville police detectives, his frustrations over several battles with the association erupted. Within 30 minutes of the on Sept. 6 meeting’s start, 73-year-old David Merritt and 69-year-old Marvin Fisher lay dead on the floor. Hindi shot the men, then told onlookers to call the police, he wasn’t going to hurt anyone else and wasn’t going to leave.
“They just made the killer in me. I had to do it,” Hindi told police hours after the shootings in eastern Louisville. “Those are not human beings. Those are actually big time racists.”
Hindi is charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of wanton endangerment in the shooting at the Spring Creek Homeowners Association. He has pleaded not guilty as prosecutors weigh whether to seek a death sentence for the Jordanian-trained doctor with an expired medical license. Hindi is scheduled to return to court Nov. 2.
Prosecutors released Hindi’s police interview as part of an exchange of evidence with defense attorneys. On the tape, first reported by The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisvillle, Hindi recounts the months leading up to the shooting, his prolonged battles with the association and the sleepless night before the shootings.
During the more than four hours of video, Hindi speaks clearly and unemotionally about what led up to the shooting, as well as the shooting itself. At one point, Hindi diagrammed the shooting on a white board for officers, explaining where he sat, how he first shot Merritt, then Fisher.
Hindi recounted months-long disputes with neighbors in the year before the shooting over the size and location of a fence near the master bedroom of a house owned by his children in the neighborhood. The size and location of the fence, and later a driveway extension, became such sore points that the association took Hindi to court several times. Hindi put the fence up, was told to remove it, but left it stand for several months while the court cases played out. By the time the shooting took place, the fence had been removed.
Those court hearings stoked Hindi’s animosity toward Merritt and Fisher, who were board members of the association.
“This is ridiculous, actually,” Hindi said. “They were having fun, actually, making the life of our people miserable.”
In court documents and an interview, the attorney for the homeowners association, Mike Kelly, has said the group was merely trying to enforce size and location restrictions on fences and alterations to homes.
About 10 days before the shootings, Hindi met with Merritt, Fisher and Kelly to discuss the fence. Hindi said he never heard back from any of the three men after that meeting.
“I wanted to us to be neighbors, good neighbors,” Hindi said.
After that gathering, Hindi said, he seriously considered killing Merritt and Fisher and wishes he had done it then. Instead, he waited.
“I said to myself, ‘If it’s not going to resolve peacefully, I have to kill them,'” Hindi said. “I had to kill them, actually.”
The night before the meeting, Hindi said, he was restless and didn’t sleep well. The next day, Hindi’s family planned a birthday dinner and party for one of the children. That evening, Hindi said, he took a loaded gun and spare bullets to the meeting, but didn’t shoot anyone immediately because he was waiting for an opportunity to address his issues with the homeowners association.
Hindi said he felt ignored for about 30 minutes and wasn’t given a chance to speak, so he took the gun from his brief case and set it in his lap.
“I stood up and shot Mr. Merritt that way. He was sitting,” Hindi said. “And, then … I turned to Mr. Fisher and shot him also. This is exactly what I had in mind … If they were not going to talk like human beings, I was going to shoot them.”
Two other people at the meeting tackled Hindi, who told police he immediately surrendered and planned to wait for officers to arrive.
“I wanted to talk to the people and tell them I didn’t have anything against them,” Hindi said.
At the end of the interview, police confiscated Hindi’s clothes and gave him a white jump suit. Detectives then placed Hindi under arrest and cuffed his hands before leading him off to jail. Upon being told that he would be arrested, Hindi showed no emotion.
“OK,” he said.
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Follow Associated Press reporter Brett Barrouquere on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBarrouquereAP
