What does "dead" mean in this sentence?

[pink dragon]

John Wayne shot dead five guys.

Is “dead” an adverb in this case?
Does the sentence mean that he shot five guys and killed them, or he shot five guys violently and wounded them?

If you need the whole story, you can see it in the following website.
http://www.kqed.org/w/baywindow/arti...amfiction.html
The sentence in question is in the paragraph which starts with “One night”.

Thanks in advance.

[Tdol]

This can be called a resultative adjective- it describes the guys after the shooting, rather than the way he shot. If you try to take the noun phrase out, the sentence doesn't work:
*He shot dead- no sense

Therefore, I'd say it isn't an adverb despite the postion- you could equally move it to after the noun phrase:
He shot five guys dead.

It does mean that he killed five guys by shooting them.

This is an area where the disticntion between adjective and adverb isn't that clearcut and there is some debate on the issue, but I think the resultative adjective idea explains it neatly.

[pink dragon]

Thank you very much, tdol!
You have explained all I wanted to know.

[Tdol]

You're welcome, Pink.