OCHO RIOS, St Ann – Three armed men who yesterday attempted to rob a store about 100 metres from the Ocho Rios police station were shot and killed by cops.

A store manager, who was gun butted during the incident, had to receive medical treatment but there were no other injuries.

One of the slain gunmen remained unidentified up to press time but the other two have been identified as David Gray and Benjamin Bryan. A University of the West Indies’ maintenance service ID was found on Bryan’s body after the shooting, which caused quite a stir in the resort town.

The brazen robbery attempt came shortly after the Bargains Paradise store, located along Evelyn Street in the centre of Ocho Rios, opened for business at about 9:30 am. Three armed men entered the jewellery and appliance store and ordered everyone inside to lie on the floor, then one of the gunmen began to fill a store employee’s handbag with cash and jewellery valued at about $500,000.

A white Toyota Corolla station wagon, with the driver behind the wheel, waited across the road.

But an alert policeman on beat duty foiled the robbery attempt. While passing the store, he noticed the store personnel lying on the floor and called for back-up.

Lawmen responded quickly and arrived on the scene while the robbery was still in progress. According to the police’s information officer for Ocho Rios, the armed robbers opened fire on the lawmen, cops returned the fire and when the dust cleared two of the armed robbers lay dead. The third died later in the St Ann’s Bay Hospital. It is believed that all three dead men, who appeared to be in their early twenties, are from Ocho Rios.

Meanwhile the driver of the get-away car, while fleeing the scene, hit three other vehicles.

Cops gave chase and cornered him in the vicinity of the Reynold’s Pier, on the western tip of Ocho Rios. “Let him go mek we kill him!” shouted members of a crowd that had gathered, as the police escorted the man through the gates of the police station.

Others loudly rejoiced that the captured man’s cronies had been killed.

“The three a dem dead!” one man shouted to his approaching friends, while waving his hands frantically.

The loot was recovered by the cops, and Member of Parliament for Northeast St Ann, Shahine Robinson, praised the police for their quick action.

“We must commend the police at this time and give them our support as they try to maintain law and order,” she told the Observer.

Two guns were seized from the armed men – a 9mm Browning pistol with five live rounds, with its serial number erased, and a .38 revolver containing three live rounds and three spent shells. The revolver’s serial number is ML882696.

Cops also seized the get-away car and the driver is in custody awaiting an ID parade.