A policeman and a senior director of Shocking Vibes, the promotions company for popular entertainer Beenie Man, were among three people shot dead in Kingston on Tuesday night.

The policeman, Special Corporal Fearon Burke, 44, who was stationed at Mobile Reserve, Harman Barracks; Paul Tyrell, the executive director of Shocking Vibes; and Marcello Whyte, 29, a resident of Craig Town in Kingston, were all murdered within an hour in separate incidents on Tuesday night .

Burke, the third policeman to be murdered this year, and the third in six day, was shot dead at a bar in Kingston,

Just last Friday, Senior Superintendent Lloyd McDonald, also of the Mobile Reserve, was shot dead at the intersection of Devon Road and Trafalgar Road.

Burke was killed at a bar along Sefton Road in Kingston 5 when he went to collect proceeds from a gaming machine he owned. Police said that while he was conducting business at about 10.30 pm, four armed men entered the bar and robbed everyone inside. One of the gunmen then shot the corporal in the back of his head after searching his pick-up truck and finding his firearm and police identification card.

“The boy them find the gun and ask him if him a police. Him say no. Them go and search the van and find the police ID before them come kill him. It looked like them know him movements and plan for him,” a policeman at the murder scene told the Observer.

Burke, who served the constabulary for 22 years, has left about 25 children to mourn his loss.

Security Minister Peter Phillips and Police Commissioner Francis Forbes both condemned the slaying of the policeman.

At the same time, Forbes, in a press statement yesterday, urged members of the constabulary to be cautious in their movements throughout the country.

Tyrell fell victim to a gunman at the intersection of Springvale Avenue and Constant Spring Road in Kingston.

The police reported that Tyrell, who was driving his Toyota Rav 4 along Springvale Avenue, was shot as he slowed down at the Constant Spring Road intersection.

The gunman fired two bullets in the vehicle, one of which struck Tyrell in the head. The vehicle crashed in an electricity pole on Constant Spring Road. A policeman took Tyrell to the University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Tryell’s assassin escaped on foot along Dunrobin Avenue.

Persons who said they witnessed the shooting said the murderer wore an orange tam and a white T-shirt and was transported to the scene on a motor bike.

Tyrell’s death shook the management and staff at Shocking Vibe. Company owner, Patrick Roberts, who was too distraught to speak, cried openly.

Beenie Man, still recuperating from his recent accident on the Mandela Highway, took the news badly and had to be taken to hospital where he was admitted and checked by medical staff before being released.