A 47-year-old building contractor was shot and killed yesterday outside a house he was renovating in New Kingston.

The contractor, Errol Junior Weir, of Barbican in Kingston, died while undergoing treatment at the University Hospital.

Police said one of three armed men pumped a bullet into Weir’s chest at about 1:30 pm as he sat in his white Subaru station wagon, just outside a two-storey gable-roofed house in Trafalgar Park, 17 Hamilton Drive.

Police offered no motive for the slaying. But neighbours said Weir had been in the habit of paying his workers outside the house at 17 Hamilton Drive, and that this may have come to the gunmen’s attention.

A witness said the gunmen talked briefly with Weir and that “im seh im nuh have no money”. Then three shots rang out, one of which hit Weir in the chest.

The gunmen fled and a resident, accompanied by a police escort, drove Weir to the hospital in the contractor’s station wagon.

“Mi just measure the work and sitting down to finish it when de shot dem fire,” said a mason who worked for Weir. “I thought it was police or criminal dem fighting or something but neva think seh it was the boss. I look out and see three man a run. I neva see dem face.”

Another resident said: “I heard one of the workers calling out, ‘Murder, Murder, dem kill mi boss.’ So, I went to see if I know him.

“Mi just see the man on the ground, twist up on his side.”

By-standers who ran to the bloody scene said the car’s interior had been ransacked and its glove compartment was wide open.

Residents said they had expressed concern, in the past, about Weir’s habit of paying employees outside the house.

“Every Friday this time im park up his little car outside the gate and pay de man dem,” said one neighbour. “It seems like im late because he was about to leave when they pounced on him.”