(Barbados Nation) A man was shot at point blank range on a minibus in full view of several stunned passengers in Pine/Wildey, St Michael, on Wednesday night.

Alex Romel Samuel, of Jackson, St Michael, was  gunned down by an unidentified man, who entered the van somewhere along the Pine East West Boulevard.

The unemployed 30-year-old man, was shot in the chest about 5:40 p.m. on B132 that was en route to Bridgetown.

Police Inspector David Welch told the DAILY NATION the assailant fled in the direction of the Parkinson Memorial School. Welch added that police were making headway in their investigations.

Classes at the nearby University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, had to be cancelled.

Samuel was the third recorded murder for 2012.  His slaying follows that of Damien Omar Mitchell, 28, who was shot in the head at a football match at the Victor “Gas” Clarke sporting centre in Carrington Village on Monday, the New Year holiday, and the torching of carpenter and former cyclist Michael Jefferson Albert last week at his Country Park Towers home in St Michael.