Police killed four suspects and arrested at least two others hours after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise at his home overnight on Wednesday, according to officials in the Caribbean country.
Communications Secretary Frantz Exantus announced in a tweet the apprehensions were made in Pelerin, a district that encompasses Petion-Ville, where Moise’s residence is located.
Three police officers held hostage by the suspected gunmen were freed late Wednesday, said Leon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, according to the Associated Press.
Moise, 53, was shot dead, and his wife, first lady Martine Moise, was critically injured after assailants, who claimed to be with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, stormed their property around 1 a.m. Wednesday. Some Haitian authorities insisted the perpetrators were “mercenaries.”
In videos obtained after the incident, someone with an American accent is heard yelling in English over a megaphone, “DEA operation. Everybody, stand down. DEA operation. Everybody, back up, stand down.”
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Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, told reporters it was “absolutely false” DEA agents were involved in the attack.
Claude Joseph, acting prime minister of Haiti, has assumed the role of interim premier.
“The country’s security situation is under the control of the National Police of Haiti and the Armed Forces of Haiti,” Joseph said in a statement from his office. “Democracy and the republic will win.”
At around 3:30 p.m., Martine Moise arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before being transported in a gurney to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to treat multiple gunshot wounds. The 47-year-old suffered wounds to her arms, thigh, hands, and abdomen. Her vitals were stable, though she was in critical condition.
“We are shocked and saddened to hear of the horrific assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on First Lady Martine Moise of Haiti,” President Joe Biden wrote in a Wednesday tweet. “We condemn this heinous act — and stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti.”
Similarly, Price referred to the assassination as a “tragedy.”
“The U.S. strongly condemns the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on first lady Martine Moise in Haiti,” he said during videotaped remarks. “We extend our deepest condolences to President Moise’s family and his loved ones and to the people of Haiti in the midst of this tragedy.”
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Haiti — a poor Caribbean nation with economic, political, and social woes — is scheduled to hold general elections later in 2021.
Moise, who was elected in 2016 and took office in 2017, announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including two high-profile government officials, on Feb. 7, accusing them of plotting to kill him and overthrow the government.
