Six ‘assassins’ have been arrested and seven others killed over the murder of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse who was riddled with 12 bullet holes and had his eye gouged out during Wednesday’s brutal attack.
Haitian authorities said Thursday they had captured four more suspected members of the hit squad, taking the total to six detained and seven killed by police while a nationwide manhunt for all those responsible continues.
At least two of the men brought in alive were found hiding in bushes by civilians who roughed them up before turning them over to police.
Security forces were involved in an overnight shootout with some of the suspects who raided Moise’s mansion in the hills above Port-au-Prince with high-powered rifles in the early hours of Wednesday, assassinating him and leaving his wife seriously wounded.
The identities of the suspects has not been released, with neither their nationalities, genders, ages or ethnicities revealed, and no motive has been given for the attack.
National Police Director Leon Charles told Radio Metropole Thursday that other members of the hit squad remain at large and vowed that the other people responsible ‘will be killed or arrested.’
Moise’s terrified adult daughter Jomarlie was forced to hide in a bedroom as the assassins ransacked his office and rooms, firing machine guns and leaving her 53-year-old father to die an horrific death, lying in a pool of blood at the private residence.
President Moise with First Lady Martine and their three children, from left, Jomarlie, Jovenel Jr and Joverlein
A maid and another servant were tied up by the gunmen who had shouted ‘DEA operation’ as they burst in, pretending they were officers of the US Drugs Enforcement Administration, speaking in English and Spanish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHXUwbinSmg
First Lady Martine, 47, was shot through the legs, arm, torso and hand, and was later airlifted in a ‘critical condition’ to a hospital in Miami.
Martine was last night described as ‘out of danger’ and in a ‘stable condition’ by Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who on Thursday said he had spoken with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and asked the US for ‘technical support’ to help Haiti hold elections in the coming days.
One of the men detained by Haitian police on suspicion of being involved in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse
Another male suspect is seen covered in blood as he was loaded into the back of a police car Thursday – one day on from the deadly raid on the president’s mansion
The two men were reportedly found hiding in bushes by civilians who roughed them up before turning them over to police
Six ‘assassins’ have been arrested and seven killed over the murder of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse, police said. The bodies of two of the people killed by police are pictured being transported away in a police vehicle
The arrests and deaths of some of the suspected assassins comes as new details emerged about the deadly raid.
Magistrate Carl Henry Destin told the Nouvelliste newspaper that the President’s body had been ripped apart by 12 bullets from large caliber rifles and smaller 9mm weapons, to the forehead, chest, hips and abdomen.
‘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.
PM Joseph claims he has the situation in hand but the international community fears that the country will fall into utter chaos after months of protests against Moise, who was accused of turning the country into a dictatorship and allowing armed gangsters to roam the streets to prevent new elections.
The raid took place just after 1am local time. Shell casings could be seen on the street outside as forensics experts combed the scene for evidence. A nearby car was peppered with bullet holes.
Moise’s wife was first treated at a local hospital then rushed by air ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.
The critically-injured Martine Moise was flown to Miami and then taken by air ambulance to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for treatment after she was shot alongside her husband
Trinity Air Ambulance touches down at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida, carrying the gravely injured Martine Moise, Haiti’s First Lady, who was shot during an assassination raid that killed her husband, Haitian President Jovenel Moise
Martine Moise, first lady of Haiti, arrives at Jackson Health System’s Ryder Trauma Center, in Miami, for treatment Wednesday after being shot multiple times at her home earlier in the day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the attack that killed her husband
A crowd of locals gathered outside the Petion Ville police station Thursday demanding police hand over the suspects so they can burn them in retaliation for the president’s assassination
Interim PM, Joseph Claude has appealed to citizens that they need the suspects alive to continue investigation.
Police try to control the crowd gathered outside the police station as six suspects have been arrested and seven killed
A car riddled with bullet holes outside the late president’s home in the hills near Port-au-Prince on Wednesday
Ammunition casings lay on the ground near the entrance to the house of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise
Investigators work near Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s home in Port-au-Prince collecting evidence after the assassination
Two men believed to be Haitian Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president, a senior Haitian official said Thursday.
Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections, told The Associated Press that James Solages was among six people arrested in the 36 hours since the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moise by gunmen at his home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.
Four other suspected assailants were killed and two are still missing, Pierre said.
Pierre would not provide additional details about Solages’ background, nor would he provide the name of the second Haitian-American he said was arrested.
Solages describes himself as a “certified diplomatic agent,” an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he established in 2019 in south Florida to assist residents.