SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland – The police’s Bureau of Special Investigations has been called in to probe yesterday’s fatal shooting by cops of an alleged wanted man in the Queen’s Street area of this western town.

Last night, the police maintained a strong presence in the community as residents who earlier took to the streets to vent their disgust at the killing vowed to return, to protest the police’s action.

According to the police, Raphael Ellison, 27, whom cops said was wanted for a number of crimes, including shooting with intent, wounding with intent, and questioning for several robberies and shootings in the Savanna-la-Mar area, was killed after he allegedly pulled a gun at a police party.

“At about 2:00 pm, a police party went to 19 Queen’s Street in Savanna-la-Mar where Ellison, otherwise called ‘Weatherman’ lived. He was seen lying face down on a bed and when the police party called out to him, identified themselves as police officers, he spun around with a gun in his hand and he was subsequently shot and killed,” said Thomozene Foster, the police’s information officer for Westmoreland said.

She said the police recovered from the house a 10mm Smith and Wesson revolver and six rounds of 10mm cartridges.

But, angry residents disputed the police’s story.

“Somebody a go a prison for this,” sobbed Ellison’s stepmother Hyacinth Ellison, outside the one-room board house the deceased shared with his girlfriend on Queen’s Street.

Outside the yard, a large number of angry neighbours and relatives expressed outrage at the police killing.

“The man a sleep and dem come shoot him in a him bed,” shouted a friend of the deceased, who told reporters to leave the community as they would be rioting shortly.

Ellison’s brother, Asani Ellison, 25, who claimed that he witnessed the event, said the police came to the house and shot his brother in cold blood. “Dem come shot him and lock him up in a de house,” he said. He alleged that the police had been sending his brother messages for the past three weeks that they were going to kill him.

Ellison’s father, Raphael Ellison Snr, who was in a state of shock, was unable to speak to reporters, but pointed to the blood-stained sheet on the bed with bullet holes where his son was killed. For him his son’s death was a tragic loss.