His sister Sarah Wright wrote on social media on Wednesday: “Well that’s one way to start the new year, finding out your baby brother has been murdered in Jamaica. To say we are heartbroken is an understatement.

“You’ll get justice ikkle (little) bro.”

Mr Patterson was standing by a pool at the popular guest house when he was approached by a suspect who pulled out a handgun, pursued him a short distance and then opened fire.

Witnesses heard “loud explosions”, Jamaica Constabulary Force said. The victim was transported to Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay but was unable to be revived.

A 34-year-old man, from Kingston, has been taken into custody.

It is reported he had been deported from the United Kingdom in 2013.

According to the Jamaica Star, Mr Patterson arrived on the Caribbean island on December 29. He is said to have spent three days at a popular apartment complex in Freeport, before booking in at the One Love villa. A close friend told the newspaper, the deceased and a friend attended an event on the north coast of the island on Sunday and later met up with the suspect.

The three of them reportedly travelled to Montego Bay.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman confirmed they were currently “supporting the family of a British man who died in Jamaica and are in contact with the local authorities”.

Jamaica has the second highest homicide rate per capita in the world, behind El Salvador.

Around 1,498 were killed last year, 24 more than in 2021, out of a total population of 2.8 million, according to the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

St James, where Mr Patterson died, was its most violent district with 198 murders.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness recently declared a widespread state of emergency in response to a surge in gang violence.

The state of emergency applies to specific communities in the capital of Kingston, along with six of the country’s 14 parishes, including popular tourist spots like Montego Bay.

It will also allow authorities to arrest people and search buildings without a warrant – something which has been heavily criticised by political opponents and activists, who have warned against a repeat of the police abuse and mass detentions that occurred under previous states of emergency.

Gangs known as “posses” that have been linked to major political parties have been blamed for the vast majority of killings on the island, who rely on extortion, drug trafficking and lottery scams to fund their crimes.

Jamaica has enforced a number of states of emergency over the past few years in response, which have been condemned by human rights activists.

But the island’s Supreme Court has ruled several times that the detention of Jamaicans for months at a time without a trial is unconstitutional.

An expert on emergency powers and former professor at Howard University, Jermain Young, says states of emergency deliver only marginal results and have worrying consequences.

“Jamaica has a sordid reputation for abusing emergency powers,” he wrote in an essay this month.

He said the police and military “have engaged in practices that include arbitrary and unlawful mass extended detentions, extrajudicial killings and internal renditions”.

But authorities in Jamaica are defending the measure, with Police Chief Maj Gen Anthony Johnson noting a 64% decline in killings during a smaller, two-week state of public emergency in November.

The prime minister said he is aware of the concerns.

“It is not the intention of the government to abuse these powers,” Mr Holness said. “As long as it is needed, this government will use states of public emergency.”

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