VINCENT McGrowder, a 40-year-old labourer from Logwood in Whithorn, Westmoreland, was killed Sunday night in what the Savanna-la-Mar police allege was a shootout.

A firearm was reportedly recovered from McGrowder, otherwise called ‘Dado’.

Police reports say that a police party was on patrol in the Sweet River area at about 10:00 pm Sunday when they came upon a white Toyota Corolla sedan parked at the side of the road.

The police say they saw three men coming from nearby bushes and heading for the car.

The car sped off and the police reportedly accosted the men who reportedly opened fire at the police party and then fled after the lawmen engaged them in a shootout.

McGrowder was shot in the chest.

A .22 BOA pistol, with 6 live rounds, was taken from his body, police say, along with a black bag containing two Nokia cell phones and items of jewellery.

The police also said that the dead man had what the doctor confirmed to be a gunshot wound on his left thigh, which the doctor said was inflicted not more than 24 hours before he was killed in the Logwood shootout.

Meanwhile, the police believe that McGrowder might have been linked to a shooting incident in Three Miles River in Westmoreland, Saturday night.

In that incident 39 year-old businessman Muniar Badaloo, who was in the company of two other persons in a shop at Three Miles River when a man toting both a rifle and pistol entered and shot up the shop, was shot.

Badaloo was hit in the left leg and left hip.

Badaloo reportedly opened fire at the lone gunman with his licensed firearm, but police reports say he was unsure whether he had hit the shooter.

He is being treated at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital for his wounds.

The police theorise that McGrowder might have been the shooter only on the basis that he was sporting a gunshot wound.

The Bureau of Special Investigation is probing the Sweet River shooting.