Haiti gangs attempt to seize international airport
Heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country’s prisons.
The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site.
Associated Press journalists saw an armored truck on the tarmac shooting at gangs to try and prevent them from entering airport grounds as scores of employees and other workers fled from whizzing bullets.
It is the biggest attack on the airport in Haiti’s history.
Last week, the airport was struck briefly by bullets amid ongoing gang attacks, but gangs did not enter the airport nor seize control of it.
Masked shooters kill 4, wound 7 at party
A group of men in masks opened fire at an outdoor party in central California, killing four people and wounding seven others, police said.
Police responded to a reported shooting around 6 p.m. Sunday in King City and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard, the King City Police Department said in a statement.
A woman also died after someone took her to Mee Memorial Hospital in King City, about 106 miles south of San Jose.
Police initially said three wounded men were brought to Natividad Hospital in Salinas, but later announced in a news release that detectives subsequently learned of another four adult victims with gunshot wounds. They also were eventually taken to the hospital.
Several people were at the party outside a home when three men with dark masks and clothes got out of a silver car and fired at the group. The suspects, who were not immediately identified, then fled the scene in the car.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
Firefighters, weather keep wildfires in check
An influx of hundreds of firefighters and more favorable weather conditions on Monday helped authorities in the Texas Panhandle keep the largest wildfire in state history from threatening more homes and communities, fire officials said.
Strong winds spread flames and led to the evacuation of the small town of Sanford on Sunday while airplanes dropped fire retardants to stop a blaze that was quickly contained thanks to hundreds of firefighters who were deployed on the ground, said Deidra Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Hutchinson County Emergency Management.
“Yesterday, had we not had the resources we had, that fire could have been catastrophic,” Ms. Thomas said Monday. “We’re in a really good position today and tomorrow and hopefully through the rest of the week.
“The weather is going to be favorable, the winds are going to be much lower, the humidity is coming up, and that’s fantastic news for us.”
Although officials have not released an official cause of the largest fire, the Smokehouse Creek fire that scorched more than 1 million acres and destroyed dozens of homes near the towns of Stinnett and Canadian, a lawsuit filed Friday in Hemphill County alleges a downed powerline near the town of Stinnett on Feb. 26 sparked the blaze.