Brendon Lawrence, from the St Ann's area of the city, died in the Queen's Medical Centre shortly after being shot in the chest at about 1900 GMT on Tuesday.

Police said they believed Brendon had been shot in Watkin Street, St Ann's, after getting out of a red Ford Fiesta XR2.

Postmortem awaited

Detective Superintendent Kevin Flint, who is leading the investigation, said: "It then appears that car was driven away, possibly by two black men, leaving Brendon and the car's owner in Watkin Street."

The Fiesta was later found abandoned and burnt out.

Mr Flint said: "We are now interviewing the owner of the car and there are about 20 people in the area who are being spoken to about what they heard or saw."

Extra police are on patrol in St Ann's

Witnesses said that they had heard three shots fired. However, police are awaiting the results of the post-mortem examination to see how many times Brendon had been shot.

"At the moment we are keeping an open mind about the motive for this murder," said Mr Flint. "We are being led to believe that a handgun was used."

The shooting was the first gun-related death since Nottinghamshire police started a city-wide anti-firearms crackdown.

Officers have carried out detailed searches of the scene of the killing and have increased patrols in the St Ann's area.

Senior police officers are due to meet community leaders and councillors to discuss the shooting this evening.