Po­lice shot and killed three men in sep­a­rate in­stances be­tween Wednes­day night and yes­ter­day.

In the most re­cent killing, an off-du­ty of­fi­cer shot and killed Leshon Vil­lafana dur­ing an at­tempt­ed rob­bery of a roulette ma­chine in Ari­ma last evening.

Ear­li­er, of­fi­cers of the La Hor­quet­ta Po­lice Sta­tion were on pa­trol along Co­corite Road, Ari­ma when they re­spond­ed to a re­port of a break-in at a bar.

The of­fi­cers ar­rived at the scene around 12.30 am and found Nyal Fer­nan­dez, 25, and a 32-year-old man, both from Mo­ha­gany Trace, Mal­abar, break­ing in­to New House Side Recre­ation Club.

Po­lice said the men opened fire on the of­fi­cers re­turned fire, killing Fer­nan­dez while the oth­er man was ar­rest­ed un­harmed.

In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, of­fi­cers iden­ti­fied the vic­tim as Tabati Hy­land who was want­ed for ques­tion­ing in con­nec­tion with two mur­ders in the San­ta Cruz area.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports around 7.30 pm of­fi­cers ap­proached Hy­land at Ryan Street, San Juan, when he re­port­ed­ly opened fire on them. The of­fi­cers re­turned fire and Hy­land was killed.

Po­lice said Hy­land, who lived at La Canoa, Low­er San­ta Cruz, was linked to the killing of Ja­son Thomas, of Kingston Av­enue, off La Canoa Road, San­ta Cruz on Sep­tem­ber 24. He was al­so want­ed for the mur­der of Ama­do Her­nan­dez, 21, of Pi­p­i­ol Road, San­ta Cruz.

Her­nan­dez was killed out­side his girl­friend’s home at Sam Bou­caud, San­ta Cruz on Sep­tem­ber 18. 

The killing of the two men has tak­en the num­ber of po­lice killings for the year to 37. 

Barataria man killed in dri­ve-by

A 27-year-old Barataria man was killed short­ly be­fore noon yes­ter­day in a dri­ve-by shoot­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, around 11.30 pm Aaron “Son Son” Hillaire was stand­ing along Sec­ond Street, Sixth Av­enue, Barataria when a car stopped near him and an oc­cu­pant opened fire be­fore the dri­ver sped off.

Po­lice said Hillaire col­lapsed in a near­by drain and was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex where he was pro­nounced was dead on ar­rival.

The mur­der toll, fol­low­ing Hillaire’s killing, pushed the mur­der toll to 364 for the year.