Ex-Resident, Daughter Killed as Car Seized in Saudi Arabia

A former Orange County woman and her 10-year-old daughter were shot to death in Saudi Arabia when a gunman seized their car during a police chase.

The deaths of Kimberly Hinkson, 32, and her daughter, Courtney, in the capital city of Riyadh were called a “tragic incident” unrelated to the events surrounding the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.

Officials said the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia had expressed his deepest condolences to the Hinkson family. Kimberly’s husband, Kent Hinkson, 36, survived a bullet wound to the head during the police chase on Tuesday. He was employed as a computer systems manager for the Saudi government and had been working in the Middle East, on and off, for seven years.

The Hinksons had lived in Westminster, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove while not in the Middle East, and recently had bought a home in Utah to which they planned to move after Kent Hinkson’s current tour.

According to relatives in Orange County, the couple were stopped at an intersection while en route to buy groceries. Four of the couple’s six children were with them at the time, including Courtney, who was seated in back.

“They stopped and this man swung open the door, jumped in and picked up this little girl and just shot her in the neck,” said Courtney’s grandmother, Norma Hinkson of Fountain Valley. The man then commandeered the car.

For the next 45 minutes, police chased the man, who was suspected of smuggling drugs. The Hinkson car with six family members inside was fired upon repeatedly until it stalled. The gunman then got out unharmed and surrendered.

Kimberly Hinkson, who was pregnant, was fatally wounded by shots fired by Saudi police, relatives said.

“We can’t understand why Saudi police kept firing at the car. Courtney’s sister, Gretchen, who is 8, has just gone to pieces,” said the girls’ grandmother.

The State Department spokesman said the emir of Riyadh, or governor, met with Kent Hinkson to offer his sympathies and promised a complete police investigation.

“We have full confidence in their ability to carry out a complete (police) investigation,” the spokesman said.