Suspects in the assassination are shown to the media, along with the weapons and equipment they allegedly used in the attack
(Picture: AP)A hit squad including two Haitian Americans was behind the assassination of Haiti’s president, police say.
James Solages and Joseph Vincent were among 17 suspects detained in the brazen killing of president Jovenel Moïse by gunmen at his home before dawn on Wednesday. The others are said to be mostly Colombians.
Haiti’s police chief Leon Charles said three other suspects were killed by police in a shootout and eight others are on the run.
“We are going to bring them to justice,” he said as the 17 suspects sat handcuffed on the floor during a press conference last night.
The oldest suspect is 55 and the youngest, Solages, is 35, according to officials.
Solages has described himself online as a “certified diplomatic agent” and said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy.
Witnesses said two suspects were discovered on Thursday hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince by a crowd, some of whom grabbed the men by their shirts and trousers.
Officers put them in the back of a truck and drove away as a crowd ran after them to the nearby police station.
Once there, some chanted: “They killed the president! Give them to us. We’re going to burn them!”
The crowd later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the suspects.
Officials have addressed a motive for the slaying, saying only that the attack was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group”.
Meanwhile, a Haitian judge involved in the investigation said that Mr Moïse was shot a dozen times and his office and bedroom were ransacked, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
It quoted Judge Carl Henry Destin as saying investigators found 5.56 and 7.62mm cartridges between the gatehouse and inside the house.
Mr Moïse’s daughter, Jomarlie Jovenel, hid in her brother’s bedroom during the attack, he said, and a maid and another worker were tied up by the attackers.
Haiti’s first lady Martine Moïse survived the attack and was flown to a hospital in Miami where she was said to be in a critical but stable condition.
