WESTFIELD – A man charged with attacking his neighbors and their dog with a hammer is being held without right to bail at least until Wednesday.
Adrian B. Hinds, 25, of 342 Southwick Road, who so brutally assaulted the victims that witnesses could hear the victims screaming and hear the hammer striking the victims’ heads, will have a pretrial dangerousness hearing on Wednesday in Westfield District Court to determine whether he is eligible for release while awaiting trial.
Hinds was arraigned in Westfield District Court on Friday, a day after being arrested by Springfield Police, two days after the assault.
He is charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon with serious bodily injury, two counts of armed assault to murder and one charge of animal cruelty, according to court logs.
Hinds has eleven entries in his Massachusetts Criminal History record including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault, threatening, resisting arrest, malicious destruction of property and four charges of assault and battery on a police officer, according to Westfield Det. Anthony Tsatsos’ Statement of Facts.
The assault occurred just past 10 a.m. Wednesday morning at Southwood Acres, located at 342 Southwick Road where Hinds and the victims live.
Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe said the victims suffered severe lacerations to their skulls during the unprovoked attack.
The first victim, a woman in her 20s, had just exited the apartment building when Hinds came up behind her and grabbed the backpack she was wearing causing her to fall and strike her face, according to Tsatsos’ report.
While she was on the ground, “Hinds began hitting her with the hammer about the head,” Tsatsos wrote.
Allegedly Hinds told the victim, “this is for messing with my mom,” according to Tsatsos.
Upon hearing her screams, the victim’s roommate, a man in his 20s, came running out with one of their dogs.
“Hinds struck the dog in the face with the hammer,” Tsatsos wrote.
The man was able to use pepper spray on Hinds, but “it did not have much of an effect,” and Hinds began striking him on the head with the hammer, according to Tsatsos.
The man managed to push Hinds away, who then left in his car.
A man who was working near the crime scene saw the attack and called police.
A neighbor also saw the assault from her window. She told Tsatsos that Hinds struck the man four times on the head with the hammer.
The witness, “saw a girl in the parking lot and her face was red. . . . she realized it was blood and it was all over her and she was yelling ‘get back,'” according to Tsatsos.
The victims “were treated for head trauma caused by blows inflicted by repeated strikes with a hammer,” according to court records.
They were taken to Baystate Noble Hospital where they were treated and released.
“The dog also had visible wounds caused by being struck in the face with a hammer,” according to court records. The dog’s condition is otherwise unknown.
Hinds’ vehicle, a gray Porche, was found abandoned in the Savers parking lot on Memorial Avenue in West Springfield shortly past 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, according to police logs.
Springfield police caught up with Hinds at 2:50 p.m. Thursday afternoon in an apartment located at 23 Edgewood Street.
Staff Writer Christine Charnosky can be reached at [email protected]
