A 20-year-old man was shot dead while sitting in the backseat of a vehicle in Powder Magazine on Friday night.

Justin Arjoon of Cocorite in St James was, according to police, seated in a red Suzuki vehicle with two other men near the basketball court of Phase 2 Powder Magazine, when they were approached by a masked man who shot at them.

The three had been waiting for someone when a man clad in a grey coloured jacket and a bandana on his face exited a blue vehicle and approached them with a firearm.