FORT WILLIAMS, Westmoreland — One man is dead and four others are said to be on the run following an alleged shoot-out between lawmen and gunmen in this rural community early yesterday morning.

Cops say it all began with a police patrol in the Red Hills area of the parish at about 11:50 Thursday night when they received information that a car, with five armed men aboard, was in the Fort Williams area.

On reaching the district, the police party signalled the car to stop but those onboard engaged the officers in a car chase, cops said.

Reports are that when cops eventually intercepted the gunmen, they got out of the vehicle and traded bullets with the police officers. It is said that when the shooting subsided at about 12:10 am, one man — who is still unidentified — was found suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to the Savanna-La-Mar Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The other four occupants of the car reportedly escaped under the cover of darkness but the police believe that at least one of them was hit by cops’ bullets.

Yesterday, the police’s information officer for Negril, Constable Damion Ricketts, appealed to citizens to call 119 or the nearest police station if they know the whereabouts of any of these men.

Meanwhile, an early-morning search by citizens of the area resulted in the recovery of a .45 semi automatic 9mm firearm with seven live rounds. And investigations revealed that the car which the men were driving was a vehicle that was stolen in Negril two nights before.

The owner of the vehicle told the Observer that he was at a shop at Nampriel Road when two men, armed with handguns, approached him and demanded the keys to his car.

Before they left, they robbed him of about $1,000 cash and his jewellery, he said.

Then yesterday, when the vehicle owner went to identify his car, which is at the Frome police station as investigations are ongoing, he said that he noticed that his sound system and about 180 CDs were missing. He estimated that these items were collectively worth at least $180,000.

He was not the only one robbed during Thursday night’s incident. Two women who were at the shop were also fleeced of an undetermined amount of cash and the owner of the shop was robbed of $15,000 in cash plus another undetermined sum.

Yesterday, the women and driver of the car, whose names are being withheld pending further investigations, went to Doyleys Funeral Home where they identified the dead man as one of the two armed men that had relieved them of their belongings.

Up to press time, he remained unidentified. He is of Indian descent, brown complexion, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 31 years old.