NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – A man barred from a strip club after his relationship with a bartender soured returned around closing time Tuesday and fatally shot a bouncer, who had fathered the bartender’s child, and the manager before killing himself.

The attacker, identified by police as 35-year-old Scott Medeiros, wounded three other people, including two officers whose cruiser he sprayed with bullets, and exchanged gunfire with police for at least 10 minutes, Capt. Richard Spirlet said.

One of the bullet-riddled cruisers was used as a rolling shield for people as they escaped across a parking lot, he said.

Medeiros, who was wearing SWAT gear, spoke with dispatchers during the standoff, though Spirlet would not say how long they spoke or what was said.

Club owner Tom Tsoumas said the two men killed in the attack were his nephew, Tory Marandos, 30, who was managing the club, and a security guard, Bobby Carreiro.

“We had told this young man not to come near the club” because of the tensions with the bartender, Tsoumas said.

Carreiro had told the man: “‘This isn’t the place for you. She doesn’t want to see you. It’s only going to cause problems,”‘ Tsoumas said.

Police didn’t immediately identify the bartender, who wasn’t at the club when Medeiros attacked. The woman was the mother of Carreiro’s young child, said Irene Thomas, a friend of Carriero’s.

Several weeks ago, Medeiros tried to press charges against Carreiro, according to an investigator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The local district court did not approve charges before both men died. The papers are sealed, so the nature of the complaint is not clear.

Hours before the rampage, Carreiro yelled at a man Thomas did not recognize, Thomas said. She overheard the exchange from a neighboring tanning salon and peered out a window but could see only the back of the second man.

“I’ll be back for you and you and everyone else,” the disgruntled man shouted, according to Thomas.

Cabdriver Nick Santiago was outside the club around 2 a.m. when he saw two women pulling a bloodied man out the front door.

A man wearing a black suit and bulletproof vest was holding a gun to the women as he propped open the door for them.

“I saw two girls screaming, telling the guy who had the gun not to shoot them,” Santiago said. “Obviously, the gunman saw me and told me to get the hell out of there before I get shot.”

A man inside the club was shot in both legs, Spirlet said. A woman also had minor injuries, he said.

One officer got shrapnel in the eye after he arrived with his partner and Medeiros sprayed the car with bullets, Spirlet said. The officer, whose partner was also hurt, immediately threw the car into gear and escaped.

Doctors said the officer may suffer vision loss, Spirlet said.

Medeiros was familiar with the layout of the club because he had recently installed the security system, Tsoumas said.

Freetown Police Chief Carlton Abbott said Medeiros was issued a weapons license in 2005 that permitted him to buy assault-style military rifles. He was first issued a gun permit in 1991 after he told police he needed a weapon for protection because he carried large sums of money as a salesman, Abbott said.

A police background check, conducted prior to the 2005 licensing, showed that Medeiros had not been convicted of a felony, violent crime or had any restraining orders taken against him, Abbott said.

New Bedford, a historic whaling town of nearly 100,000 residents in southern Massachusetts, was the site of another bar shooting in February. An 18-year-old armed with a hatchet and gun seriously injured three men, fled and killed two people in Arkansas before fatally shooting himself.

In October, a 21-year-old man was charged with attempted murder for allegedly trying to run down two police officers outside the Foxy Lady after an altercation in the club.

AP-ES-12-12-06 1943EST