A Hawkeye security guard was shot dead yesterday morning and one of his colleagues injured as they allegedly attempted to apprehend a gunman who had robbed and shot a passenger on a coaster bus on the busy Spanish Town Road in Kingston.

The deceased has been identified as 40-year-old Andre White, who was also a member of the Jamaica Defence Force national reserve.

His injured colleague as well as the robbery victim have been hospitalised.

The incident happened minutes after 10 in the vicinity of the Hardware and Lumber outlet, near Six Miles.

According to the police, the minibus was travelling towards downtown Kingston when, on reaching the vicinity of Six Miles, two men began making demands of the passengers. When the demands were not readily met, one of the men brandished a firearm and started to rob the passengers.

Yesterday, eyewitnesses said that the gunman robbed a male passenger of his cellular phone and then shot him.

They alleged that White and his colleagues, who were travelling in a vehicle behind the bus, rushed towards the vehicle after it stopped following the explosion.

They said that the gunman ran off the bus with gun in hand and was allegedly confronted by the security guards who ordered that he drop the weapon.

The gunman, they said, refused to comply and instead shot at the security guards, killing White on spot.

The said that the gunman then calmly walked into a nearby community. It was not clear how his crony escaped.

The incident resulted in a massive pile-up of traffic along the busy thoroughfare.

Some of White’s colleagues, who quickly converged on the scene, were in disbelief.

“All now I cannot believe that this happen. The man should not have lost him life that way,” said one distraught guard, who asked not to be named.

Managing director of Hawkeye, Ricky Mahfood, also bemoaned the loss.

“We are all obviously in a state of shock following this tragic incident,” he said.

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