Haitian police killed four and arrested two people suspected in the assassination of the country’s president, authorities announced late Wednesday.
A gun battle between local police and a group of suspected killers resulted in the death of four of the attackers who allegedly killed President Jovenel Moise and wounded his wife, Martine Moise, Haiti’s police chief Léon Charles said at a news conference, according to The New York Times (NYT).
“The police are engaged in a battle with the assailants,” he said, adding that the authorities were still chasing some other suspects. “We are pursuing them so that, in a gunfight, they meet their fate or in gunfight they die, or we apprehend them.”
Breaking News: Four people suspected in the assassination of Haiti’s president were killed by the police and two others were arrested, the country’s police chief said. https://t.co/dfRuAKZ84i
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 8, 2021
Two of the suspects, who have been described as heavily-armed and trained killers, were arrested in the upscale neighborhood of Petionville, Bloomberg reported. (RELATED: State Department: Don’t Go To Haiti, It’s Too Dangerous)
The authorities’ efforts also led to the freeing of three police officers who were held hostage by the attackers, Charles said, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The assassinated president’s wife has been transported to a hospital in southern Florida and is currently “in critical condition,” Haiti’s Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond said, NYT reported.
Edmond characterized the attack as “carried out by foreign mercenaries and professional killers — well-orchestrated,” adding that the killers impersonated agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) during the raid on Moise’s residency, the AP reported.