4 Haiti ‘assassins’ die in gunfight with cops
‘Killers trapped’ as they flee with hostages
FOUR men suspected of killing Haiti’s president have been shot dead in a gun battle.
Police “blocked” the assassins as they fled after Jovonel Moïse’s death.
Police chief Leon Charles said four were killed and two arrested.
He added that an unspecified number were still at large but “they will be killed or arrested”.
The firefight began after the assassins took three police hostage.
Charles said: “We blocked them as they left the scene of the crime.” The hostages were later freed.
Yesterday gruesome details of 53-year-old Moïse’s death emerged.
Deputy justice of the peace Carl Henry Destin said the body was riddled with a dozen bullets.
The left eye was shot out. Bullet holes were found in the forehead, there was one in each nipple, three in the hip and one in the abdomen. Destin said Moïse’s armed guards, part of the Haitian National Police, were not targeted in the raid on the presidential residence in Port-auprince early on Wednesday.
Video released after the shooting purports to show heavily armed men dressed in black outside the building shouting in English: “DEA [US Drug Enforcement Administration] operations, everybody stay down!”
Haiti’s ambassador to the US, Bocchit Edmond, called them “well-trained professional commandos” adding there was “no way” they were US agents.
Interim PM Claude Joseph said they were “foreigners who spoke
English and Spanish”. During the attack Moïse’s wife Martine, 47, was shot in the leg, arm and abdomen.
She was flown to Miami where she is said to be stable but critical.
The couple’s three children, Jomarlie, Jovenel Jr and Joverlein are reportedly in a “safe location”.
Deputy justice Destin said Jomarlie had survived by hiding in her brother’s room. A state of emergency has been declared in Haiti, one of the poorest nations on earth. It shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, a popular destination for tourists.
President’s body was riddled with a dozen bullets
CARL DESTIN DEPUTY JUSTICE YESTERDAY