THE police have launched a massive search for three men believed to have been involved in two shootings, one fatal, in the Gordon Town Road and, Tavern areas of St Andrew on Tuesday.

According to police sources, about 3:00 pm a group of people wasstanding at the gate of 22 Tavern Avenue when the driver of a grey motor car stopped across from the premises.

Two men armed with high-powered weapons reportedly alighted from the vehicle and opened gunfire at the group.

A 40-year-old farmer of a Gordon Town Road address, who was in a shop at the location, on hearing the explosions, ran from the building and was fired upon by the men.

The farmer, whose name is being withheld, was reportedly hit in the left arm, left hip, left buttocks, and right foot. He has been hospitalised in stable condition.

The gunmen escaped in the motor car, the driver of which had remained behind the steering wheel. Police investigators who processed the scene found more than 30 spent shells.

About five minutes later, a grey car, which police now suspect is the one the gunmen were travelling in after the shooting on Tavern Avenue, was seen speeding along Gordon Town Road from the direction of Tavern Drive, when it narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian.

It’s reported that 39-year-old Dwight “Oney” McDonald, a shopkeeper of a Papine address, saw the near-miss and shouted at the driver, using several expletives, about the need to be more careful on the road.

The driver immediately stopped the car and two men armed with high-powered weapons and one with a handgun stepped from the vehicle and opened fire hitting McDonald several times in his upper body and left hand.

He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Nineteen spent shells and two live rounds were found by investigators who processed that scene.

“We are following several leads, as we are desperate to capture these cold-blooded killers,” a senior police source told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“It was obvious that they had a lust for blood when they went out on Tuesday, and the quicker we apprehend them the safer Jamaica will be,” added the cop, who has urged anyone with information to share this by calling the police 119 emergency number, or Crime Stop at 311.