https://apnews.com/article/haiti-mob-gangsters-burn-to-death-88ed763d3f6714a03e627ec2add53572 Mob kills 13 suspected Haiti gangsters with gas-soaked tires By EVENS SANONApril 24, 2023 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A mob in the Haitian
capital beat and burned 13 suspected gang members to death with
gasoline-soaked tires Monday after pulling the men from police custody at a
traffic stop, police and witnesses said. The horrific vigilante violence underlined public
anger over the increasingly lawless situation in Port-au-Prince where
criminal gangs have taken control over an estimated
60% of the city since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Six more burned bodies were laid in a nearby
neighborhood later Monday, and some witnesses said that police killed them
and residents set them on fire, but the AP could not verify the accounts
independently. Haiti National Police said in a brief statement that
officers in the city’s Canape Vert section stopped and searched a minibus for
contraband early Monday, and had confiscated weapons from suspects before
they were “unfortunately lynched by members of the population.” The statement
did not elaborate on how members of the crowd were able to take control of
the suspects. A witness who gave
his name as Edner Samuel told The Associated Press that members of the crowd
took the suspected gangsters away from police, beat them and stoned them
before putting tires on them, pouring gasoline over them and burning them. An AP reporter at the scene saw 13 bodies burning in a street. The fires drew hundreds of onlookers in the hilly suburb of
the city, many of them shielding their noses from the fumes. The Canape Vert
neighborhood so far has managed to evade control by the criminal gangs. Samuel said the suspects were believed to have been heading to
another area to join a group of gang members who were battling police.
Another witness, Jean Josue, said there had been a lot of shooting in the
area since the early morning. The situation in
the capital was tense, and shots could be heard ringing out from several
neighborhoods. In the nearby area of Turgeau, a few minutes drive from Canape
Vert, witnesses said that police had killed six gang suspects in a firefight,
and that local residents dragged the bodies from where they fell to a central
location and lit them on fire. An AP reporter saw the six burned bodies. Police did not
release any statements about the violence in Turgeau. Prime Minster Ariel Henry tweeted that his government
expresses its sympathy to the police officers injured in recent operations. “I applaud the considerable and meritorious efforts of
the National Police to restore order and peace in our cities and
neighborhoods,” he tweeted. “There is still a lot to do.” Witnesses in Canape Vert said the suspects there were
believed to have been members of the Kraze Barye gang, which translates to “Breaking
Barriers.” Authorities say the group is led by Vitel’Homme Innocent, who is
accused of helping kidnap 17 U.S. missionaries in October 2021 and also is linked to the assassination of
Moïse. |
Black Emergency Managers
Association International
Washington, D.C. |
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