FALMOUTH, Trelawny Residents of Falmouth Gardens yesterday staged a massive protest in the community and later in the town's square, as they protested against Wednesday night's police killing of four young men from their community.

The placard-bearing residents, who blocked sections of the roadway leading into Falmouth Gardens with debris, said the four were murdered.

"The police are liars; they killed the youth them in cold *lo** because there was no shootout," one of the protesters told the Observer.

The dead men have been identified as twin brothers Glenroy and Glendon Gordon, 17, students of Holland High School in Trelawny; taxi operator Patrick Cunningham, 26; and Robert Brown, 20, all of Falmouth Gardens.

The police, in their version of the shooting, reported that officers were on patrol in the Race Course area about 9:15 pm when they met upon a group of men travelling in a motor car. The occupants of the car, the constabulary said, opened fire at the police when the vehicle was ordered to stop.

The police said they returned the fire and the occupants were hit. They were pronounced dead at the nearby Falmouth General Hospital.

The police said that they recovered a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver and a .380 Beretta pistol from the men.

But the protesting residents maintained that the police's version of the incident is inaccurate.

They say the police who were travelling in an unmarked vehicle, opened fire on a taxi with the four people aboard.

"The police came out of the unmarked car and start shoot up the taxi. Afterwards, one of the men in the taxi ran out of the car and the policeman chased him and shot him," said one resident of Falmouth Gardens.

The protesters, who claimed that the men were robbed by the police after they were killed, called on the police's Bureau of Special Investigation to carry out a full probe into the shooting.