Burnt Savannah, Westmoreland – Members of the civic action group, Families Against State Terrorism, (FAST) will travel to Burnt Savannah, Westmoreland, today to meet with eyewitnesses to Tuesday’s police shooting that left three men dead and sparked a protest in the community.

Police said they shot three of four suspects, who were travelling in a car, whose driver sped away when told to stop.

The men were killed during a shoot-out which they started, cops said. But on Tuesday residents took to the streets, saying at least one eyewitness had told them that the men had been killed in cold blood.

FAST is trying to ensure that witnesses give their statements to the appropriate investigators.

“We have been talking with the family,” said the group’s chairman, Yvonne McCalla Sobers. “We are trying to ensure that only those with information speak with an investigator.”

The first order of business, she added, is to provide the family with support and to ensure that the evidence is preserved.

“We will be walking them through the process and ensuring that the witnesses’ energy doesn’t go,” she added. “We want to make sure that the truth comes out.”

Dead are 21 year-old Phillip Baker and 22 year-old Craig Vacianna, both labourers, and 23 year-old Omar “Ted” Graham, a taxi operator. They were all from Burnt Savannah.

The men, who received gunshot wounds to their heads, were pronounced dead on arrival at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. The fourth man escaped, cops said.

Residents who took to the streets on Tuesday said Graham was simply doing his job as a cabbie when he was cut down. They used old bed frames, burning tree limbs and a four-foot concrete pipe to block the roads.

But according to police reports, a police party was on patrol in the Barham area at about 9:45 am when they saw a Toyota Corolla motor car with four men aboard. Cops said they signalled the car to stop because the men were acting suspiciously, but the driver sped away.

The police said they gave chase until the car stopped at a secluded area of the main road, then all four men got out of the car and opened fire.

The police said they returned the fire, hitting three of the occupants while the fourth escaped, on foot, in nearby bushes.

Cops said they recovered a 9mm Ruger pistol, with serial number 30553898, which contained two live rounds, as well as a homemade double-barrelled shotgun which was loaded with two live rounds. Three 9mm spent shells were also found near the bodies, cops said.

According to the police’s information officer for the parish, Constable Odean Dennis, the slain men were suspected of committing a series of armed robberies in the Hertford and Petersfield areas of the parish.

However, a man who claimed to be an eyewitness, said the men were murdered. Cops ordered them from the car and shot them at close range, he said.

The Bureau of Special Investigations has launched an investigation into the shooting.