TWO police officers are dead following a bizarre shooting incident at the Springlands Police Station early yesterday morning. According to reports reaching this newspaper, it is alleged that 33-year old Assistant Superintendant attached to Springlands Police Station, Ivellan Murray, shot 22-year-old Constable Kelvin Shepherd and then committed suicide at the Police Station at around 01:00 hour yesterday.
Reports indicate that Constable Shepherd was shot while he was asleep. Efforts by the Guyana Chronicle to get a comment from the Commander of “B” Division, Steve Meerai, were unsuccessful.
Reliable sources said that Murray was seen mounting the stairs to the barrack room where Shepherd was alone at the time.
Shortly after he entered, they heard a single shot and then they saw Murray emerge from the barrack room and calmly descend the stairs. He walked, at the same leisurely pace, towards his living quarters in the Police Station Compound and entered. Moments later the sound of another gun shot rang out.
A police statement said Initial investigations have revealed that Assistant Superintendent Ivelaw Murray, who was in charge of the Station, shot Constable Kevin Shepherd to his head with a Force service .38 revolver in the Barrack Room at the Springlands Police Station under so far unclear circumstances.
During investigations into the murder, the body of Assistant Superintendent Ivelaw Murray was found in his home at Hashim Street, Springlands, at about 03:25 hours yesterday, with a suspected gunshot wound below the chin. The Force firearm was recovered next to the body.
The bodies are at the Springlands Hospital mortuary.

Sources said that the motive for the murder/suicide is a complete mystery to those who knew the Police Officer.
Reliable sources also said that Murray had been seen drinking alcohol heavily on Saturday.
He had become drunk to the extent that he crashed a Police vehicle while driving, they said, damaging it slightly. This heavy drinking by Officer Murray, they said, had been very unusual.
“I never saw that Officer, a normally quiet Officer, drink so much liquor yet as he did on Saturday,” a saddened source said.
At the Shepherd’s home the mystery of motive for the murder /suicide remained unfathomable.
When this newspaper visited Murray’s Better Hope residence the family was in obvious shock after hearing the news.
According to Murray’s step father, Mr. Ivan Daniels, a retired police officer, they received a call from his niece living in Berbice at around 04:30 hours yesterday, informing them that Murray was dead.
He divulged that the family was unaware of the details surrounding the shooting, but were informed that the two officers were shot and that the family was awaiting additional reports.
Relatives related that Kelvin Shepherd, 22, also known as “Black Hat”, was a popular person in Rosignol.
He loved to play football and had returned home from Skeldon on off-duty for the weekend last Thursday.
On Saturday he had just finished playing a game of football and was preparing to attend the funeral of a relative at Mahaicony when he received a call, reportedly from Assistant Superintendent Murray, instructing him to report back to Skeldon for duty immediately.
Patricia Ward also known as Patricia Shepherd, his mother, said he left home at 322 Welcome Street, Rosignol, around 17.30 hours for Skeldon, in obedience to the instruction.

The young man’s mother disclosed that during his stay at home from Thursday to Saturday, he had not given her any indication that he had been experiencing problems with anybody on the job.
“He was normal all along, and when he got the call to go back to work on Saturday, even though he was not supposed to, he did it without any apparent qualms or misgivings,” she said. “He didn’t tell me anything unusual was going on,” she added.
Shepherd is survived by his mother Patricia, his father Bertley, brother Kurt and sisters Miranda and Malaika.