Witnesses: Men in police garb massacred civilians in Haiti

Source: Associated Press

Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press
Updated 10:01 am CST, Monday, January 14, 2019

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — When a police truck carrying men in uniform pulled into an impoverished neighborhood in the Haitian capital, residents thought it was an official operation.

. . .

Then the men opened fire. Joined by local gang members clad in black, they went house to house with long guns and machetes, pulling unarmed people into the narrow alleys and killing them with single shots or machete blows, witnesses told The Associated Press.

. . .

Witnesses, a human-rights group and a Catholic charity that collected bodies after the Nov. 13 massacre told The Associated Press that at least 21 men were slain over a 24-hour period in the La Saline neighborhood.

Some residents and local rights groups say the killers were gang members working with corrupt police to seize territory in the La Saline gang war. But others accuse Haitian government officials of orchestrating the massacre to head off anti-corruption protests that often start in the neighborhood, an opposition stronghold.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Witnesses-Men-in-police-garb-massacred-civilians-13531800.php