Haitian police yesterday were hunting for more gunmen behind the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise after killing or capturing six “mercenaries,” with the nation under a state of siege.
Security forces on Wednesday engaged in a fierce shoot-out with the suspected assailants in the capital, Port-au-Prince, after the overnight attack on the president’s private residence.
Four gunmen were killed by Haitian police, and two more taken into custody, while other members of the hit squad are at large, Haitian Police Chief Leon Charles said.
Photo: Reuters
Officials have not identified the suspects or said what their motives were for shooting dead Moise and wounding his wife, Martine, who survived.
The assassination has pitched the violence-plagued and impoverished Caribbean nation into further turmoil.
Interim Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph declared a national “state of siege” and said he was now in charge.
The UN Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting over the situation as Haiti enters a two-week mourning period for the head of state.
Charles, the head of Haiti’s national police, vowed to catch the perpetrators.
“We are chasing them so that either in the exchange of fire they will be killed or we will apprehend them,” he said.
Three police officers who had been taken hostage had been recovered, he said.
The airport was closed in Port-au-Prince, but witnesses said that the city was quiet with the streets deserted and no extra security forces on patrol.
The attack took place at about 1am at Moise’s home.
Shell casings could be seen on the street outside as forensics experts combed the scene for evidence.
A nearby vehicle was peppered with bullet holes.
Magistrate Carl Henry Destin told the Nouvelliste newspaper that the president’s body had 12 bullet holes in it.
They were from large-caliber rifles and smaller 9mm weapons, to the forehead, chest, hips and abdomen, he said.
“The president’s office and bedroom were ransacked. We found him lying on his back, blue pants, a white shirt smeared with blood, his mouth open, his left eye gouged out,” he said.
Moise’s wife was first treated at a local hospital then rushed by air ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.
Joseph said she was “out of danger,” adding later that “her situation is stable.”
Their daughter, Jomarlie, was in the home during the attack, but hid in a bedroom, Destin said.
He said a maid and another domestic staff member had been tied up by the commandos who allegedly shouted “DEA operation” as they burst in, an apparent reference to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Joseph said that the president was “assassinated at his home by foreigners who spoke English and Spanish.”
“This death will not go unpunished,” Joseph said in an address to the nation.
Haitian Ambassador to the US Bocchit Edmond said that the killers were “professional” mercenaries disguised as DEA agents.
In Rome, Pope Francis yesterday sent his condolences to Haiti following what he said was the “heinous assassination” of the president.
Francis, who is recovering at a hospital from intestinal surgery, condemned “all forms of violence as a means of resolving crises and conflicts,” a telegram signed by the Vatican secretary of state said.
The message said that Francis was praying for the Haitian people and for Martine Moise.
Additional reporting by AP
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