Rocky Mount, N.C. — Rocky Mount police are seeking about a half-dozen men who disguised themselves as police officers and fatally shot a 17-year-old boy during a robbery Tuesday night.

Police said that four to six masked men posing as police got out of an SUV near a group of men playing cards around 11 p.m. outside a 2104 Travis Run. The gunmen pulled out handguns, shotguns and rifles and ordered the card players to lie down, police said. They began robbing the card players, as well as people inside the trailer.

Jermaine Larquez Lynch, who lives nearby, saw the robbery going on and tried to run away, police said. One of the gunmen shot him in the back.

Lynch was struck in the shoulder and chest, police said. He was pronounced dead at Nash General Hospital.

A K9 search turned up some of the stolen items in a ditch near 2105 Brandon Lane, but no suspects.

Police officers canvassed the neighborhood and set up a checkpoint to see if anyone had witnessed the incident.

The one gunman who wasn't wearing a mask was described as a black man between 45 and 50 years old, with a thin build and a gray, thin beard, police said.

Anyone with information about the crime should call Detective Michael Lewis at 252-972-1457 or Crime Stoppers at 252-977-1111. Crime Stoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in certain felony cases, and callers never have to identify themselves.