He waited patiently inside a guard house at Arrows Recording Studio on Windward Road. Several residents of McKintyre Villa in East Kingston recalled seeing him ‘lurking’, there yesterday morning. They distinctly remembered that he wore a blue shirt and black pants, perhaps the kind worn by security guards.

But he was no security guard.

As the hands of the clock scraped past 9:15 am, he apparently caught sight of his intended victim, 51 year-old Phillip “Bill” Linton, the owner of the recording studio.

According to the Constabulary Communication Network, (CCN) the gunman shot Linton as he attempted to enter his recording studio through a side door.

He did not take Linton’s licensed firearm.

After shooting the businessman, the gunman jumped a section of the fence in the parking lot, and escaped in a motor vehicle parked nearby.

Linton’s employee went to his assistance, and with the help of other persons lifted him outside the building and placed him on the sidewalk as a patrol car approached the scene. The police took him to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) where he was pronounced dead.

As crime scene detectives combed the area for clues yesterday, some onlookers charged that the killer could have been apprehended if the police who first came on the scene were more alert.

“When the police car come, the killer a run go up the road,” residents said. “We a shout and tell them say, see the killer a run go up the road, and them don’t even move,” one resident shouted at other officers who had converged on the scene.

The residents, some on the verge of tears, were angry that a gunman had shot and killed Linton, a man they described as a ‘godfather’ to many in the community.

“This was a man who helped many people inside this community and we can’t believe a man come in the area and kill him. It not going to end,” one angry resident shouted.

As news of Linton’s murder spread, some of his former associates rushed to the scene. Included among them was Reverend Jean Anderson of the St Michael’s church which Linton used to attend.

The clergywoman was brought to tears, and had to be assisted across the street by upcoming DJ Whipper Demus and another man from the Dunkirk area.

“We were at prayer meeting up to last week,” Anderson tearfully recalled.

Popular entertainers, including dancehall DJs Lexxus and Wickerman were among scores of entertainment personalities who visited the crime scene.

Linton is the second high-profile entertainment personality to be murdered in nine days. Last week Tuesday, Shocking Vibes executive director, Paul Tyrell, was killed by a lone gunman as he drove his Toyota Rav 4 at the intersection of Springvale Avenue and Constant Spring road.

A source told the Observer yesterday that Linton had expressed concerns that a contract was out on his life, after burglars tried to remove the air conditioning unit from his upper St Andrew home at Buena Vista Terrace, Kingston 6.

“Him tell we say contract out for him life,” the source said.

The Eastern Kingston police are investigating the killing and say the have not yet established a motive for the murder.