An official source said Constable Feroze Bashir, about 21 years old, of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara, was shot as he was talking to his young expectant `child mother' on Sideline Dam, Buxton, also on the East Coast.

Bashir was reportedly off duty and was in civilian clothes sitting on a motorcycle when the shooting took place, the official said.

The Policeman and his `child mother', about 16 years old, were talking when a man went up to them and said something to him.

Bashir responded to the man who then whipped out a gun from under his shirt and shot the young Policeman, the official said.

Bashir fell to the road and the attacker shot him again.

The wounded cop was rushed by the girl's father in a vehicle to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The shooting took place at about 18:05 hrs, the official said.

The killing followed the slaying in Buxton Saturday of Deputy Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Vibert Inniss, who was gunned down in what appeared to be a planned hit. His body was riddled with bullet wounds.

Reports said that shortly before 06:00 hrs, Inniss, in his mid-forties, was proceeding west along the Buxton Public Road in his motorcar PHH 6436 when he stopped in the vicinity of Company Road to purchase newspapers from a vendor. This was something he reportedly did regularly.

Unconfirmed reports said that a female who was with him in the car got out to get the newspaper while he waited for her to return.

As Inniss sat waiting in the parked car, a white motor vehicle, licence plate unknown, drove up from behind.

Police said a man emerged from the car and opened fire on the senior CANU official who was shot several times.

Inniss was the ninth law enforcement officer to have been gunned down in cold blood following the February 23 jailbreak.

On April 2, Police Superintendent Leon Fraser was brutally gunned down at Yarowkabra on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway as he and others mounted a search for armed and dangerous criminals.

Saturday's killing also came just two weeks after a presumptuous shootout by bandits, wounding three Policemen in an Impact patrol vehicle just outside the Brickdam Police Station and the Ministry of Home Affairs in Georgetown on August 12. Those ranks have since been discharged from hospital.

Other Policemen slain in the six-month crime rampage were Detective Sergeant Harry Kooseram who was shot and killed on April 15, while on his way to work at Vigilance Police Station; Constable Sherwin Alleyne, one of a group of cops ambushed at Coldingen, East Coast Demerara on May 25; Constable Andy Atwell, also executed as he stood at the entrance to the compound of the Alberttown Police Station on May 30; Constable Rawle Thomas of the Target Special Squad, shot while on duty in the vicinity of the Wismar Police Station on June 14, died on June 16; Corporal Adrian London - a member of the Brickdam Anti-Crime Squad - killed by a hail of bullets while on Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge on July 11 last; Constables Ramphal and Outar Kissoon of Rose Hall, Corentyne who were shot dead when bandits staged a two-and-a-half hour siege and shootout on July 21, forcing another Policeman and a businessman into the lockups at the Police outpost.

Several other Policemen have also been wounded in the upsurge of crime.

Several business people have been killed too by the bandits who have also been targeting security guards.

Andrew Douglas, one of the five escapees, was found shot dead in an abandoned hijacked car Monday morning on a road at Farm, East Bank Demerara.