WESTERN BUREAU — The Montego Bay Criminal Investigation Branch is continuing investigations into the fatal shooting of a 44 year-old man by a security guard in the city on Thursday and is to submit the case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a ruling, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police Roy Boyd.

The 44 year-old deceased man, Granville Armstrong, was said to be an alleged drug addict and had no fixed place of residence.

Boyd said that shortly after 9:00 am Thursday, Armstrong was reportedly accosted by a security guard at the Burger King restaurant along the resort city’s Hip Strip after he was seen removing flowers from a garden there.

Armstrong is alleged to have retaliated by throwing stones at the security guard, employed by the Guardsman Security Company. The police said the guard allegedly pulled his firearm and fired one shot.

The 44 year-old drug addict, who was hit in the chest, ran from the scene and collapsed some chains away in the vicinity of the Citibank.

He was later taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The security guard, who DSP Boyd said yesterday has not been taken in custody, is reported to have called the police about the incident.

He later went to the police station and made a report on the incident.

Armstrong is the first person to be killed by a security guard in St James since the start of the year.

Meanwhile veteran journalist, Hugh Crosskill who himself had a drug problem and whose funeral was held Thursday, was also fatally shot by a security guard earlier this month.

Forty-seven-year-old Crosskill, like Armstrong, was shot in the chest and the circumstances under which he lost his life at the medical complex at 1 Ripon Road in Kingston on June 7 are still unclear.

The police said one of the reports allege that Crosskill, who was seen in a building at about 6:30 am, was challenged by the security guard and during a confrontation was shot in the chest.

The other report said a female worker arrived at the building about 6:30 am stumbled on Crosskill in the building and alerted the security guard, who ordered Crosskill off the compound and during an altercation he was shot dead.

The security, who was attached to the Superior Company Ltd, was detained for questioning but has since been released from police custody pending the outcome of a ruling from the DPP in the matter.