At least two suspected assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were snatched off the street by an angry mob Thursday and taken into custody by police.
Dozens of civilians in the capital city of Port-au-Prince grabbed the alleged killers and roughed them up, telling journalists on the scene that they found the suspects hiding in bushes.
National Police Director Léon Charles told Haiti’s Radio Métropole on Thursday that six people have been arrested and seven killed in gun battles with cops, as more suspects were still being sought.
Police arrived to take control of the tense situation, hauling the men — caked in mud and sweating profusely — into the back of a pickup truck and driving off as the mob called for street justice.
“They killed the president! Give them to us,” some among the throng were heard chanting. “We’re going to burn them!”
Some of the civilians were seen following the truck to a local police station, later setting fire to bullet-riddled cars they believed to belong to the suspects.
A squad of heavily armed killers — described by Haitian officials as “well-trained” foreign mercenaries — stormed Moïse’s home in the hills overlooking Port-au-Prince around 1 a.m. Wednesday, killing the 53-year-old president and critically wounding his wife, Martine Moïse, 47.
In the wake of the daring assassination, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has assumed control of the impoverished Caribbean nation and imposed martial law.
But with no clear line of succession and neurosurgeon Ariel Henry — nominated by Moïse to succeed Joseph as prime minister one day before the assassination — questioning Joseph’s claim to the presidency, Haiti stands at risk of falling into further political disarray.
With Post wires