THE Bureau of Special Investigations has begun an investigation into the controversial police shooting of two men in a house in the Sandy Gutt district, Riversdale in deep rural St Catherine on Tuesday.

The men, 34-year-old Harvey Harrison and Ryan Welch, 22, were killed during an alleged shoot-out with the police.

The police alleged that shortly after 2:00 pm, officers from the Flying Squad unit on patrol in the community were greeted with gunfire upon approaching the house occupied by the two. The fire, they said, was returned and it was subsequently discovered that Harrison and Welch, along with two lawmen, were shot and injured.

All four men were taken to the hospital where Harrison and Welch died.

The police said they seized two Smith and Wesson firearms registered 5D63962 and D225385 along with six rounds of ammunition from the deceased.

But Harrison’s wife, Murna, had a different version of what transpired at her home on Tuesday. She said she was “outside washing” when the lawmen visited the house. According to her, there was no shootout.

“A pass Ryan a pass by and say him sick, me tell him to come inside out of the rain and him come in and lay down till him drop asleep. The two of them were sleeping inside when the police come,” Harrison told the Observer on Wednesday.

The news team was denied entry to the house by investigators but signs of the ghastly incident that occurred there on Tuesday was evident.

Bullet holes, a bloody pair of shorts, and a sheet used to clean up the blood from inside the house lay outside on the verandah.

Harrison’s four-year-old son, Shavar, was obviously unaware that he would not see his father again as he warned his sister, 13-year-old Shanty, not to touch the sheet as it was simply, “dirty”.

On Wednesday, residents told the Observer that the police had earlier this year shot at Harrison, hence their visit to the house on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Welch’s father, who was identified only as “Wayne”, said his son had no previous run-ins with the police.

“Ryan never involve in any gun thing and if the police come for one man why them have to shoot the two a them,” he said on Wednesday, adding that his son was “involved with a female in the district” and that was the only reason for his visits to the area.