Veteran Associated Press videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama was filming a tactical police unit patrolling Haiti's capital Monday when some of the gang members who control almost the entire city attacked.
They set the armored police vehicle's roof ablaze with Molotov cocktails, filling it with smoke. The officers returned fire, sending the gang running. The vehicle returned to base, and a group of civilians and police officers sprinted over to throw water on the roof.
For nearly two decades, Luxama and colleague Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, have been covering Haiti’s disintegration into even-greater chaos. At least 5.7 million Haitians are at the crisis level, with 1.9 million of those facing emergency levels of hunger. Journalists in Haiti who are under attack like never before, dodging bullets as they document the downfall of the capital.
A day after the attack, Luxama recounted his experience and a series of images from the patrol that may never leave him: A severed arm and a leg tied to an electrical wire hanging in front of an abandoned and looted store. Streets full of trash and buildings demolished, without doors or windows. Neighborhoods emptied by residents' profound fear of a powerful gang.
Gang violence has displaced 1.4 million people in recent years despite efforts by the Haitian police and a U.N.-backed police mission, with another one promised.
In downtown Port-au-Prince, Luxama remembered, “You only hear the birds singing.”
What was it like coming under fire?
On the day of the attack, Luxama said, “We took off around 10:30 a.m. (and) two hours into the patrol, we were attacked with Molotov cocktails ... along the capital's main thoroughfare.
"Everyone was calm, but smoke was coming inside. Police told us to breathe very slowly. Inside the armored car, the smoke was really heavy and was spreading everywhere quickly.
When the attack occurred, one officer sitting in front said, ‘We have been attacked by a Molotov cocktail, so let’s move. Let’s move because we don’t want the armored car to break down.’"
During gang attacks last year, police officers were pulled from broken-down armored vehicles and killed, with grisly videos of the killings circulating on social media.
How was the fire extinguished?
"It took us about seven or 10 minutes to get back to the police base.
I was very still. I was trying to not breathe so fast because I don’t want the burning smoke to get inside my body. I really stayed calm.
When the armored vehicle came to the base, there was a little bit of panic.
Everybody was running around us. They were panicked when they saw the roof on fire.
We opened the door, and when we got out, a group of civilians and police officers start coming toward us to throw water on the roof."
How did the attack feel?
“It was scary. (But) with my experience. I’ve learned not to worry.
When I’m in a difficult situation, the first thing I should do is stay calm. When you stay calm, you think about what the next situation will be, and what you should do.
If you panic, it’s not going to be good for you.”
Which images stuck with you?
"It was a sunny day.
When you first start going into some of the areas, you don’t see anybody on the street. The street is completely empty, without tap-taps (small, colorful public buses), without passengers, without motorcycles.
You only hear the birds singing.
The streets are full of trash and there are demolished buildings. The doors and windows of the buildings were removed. The gang is really feared. You can feel this.
We saw a person’s severed arm and leg tied to an electrical wire hanging in front of an abandoned stored that was already looted.
I also saw two small Haitian flags placed atop a gang barricade on one street, with twisted metal and an old oven and fridge forming part of the barricade.
Viv Ansanm (a powerful gang federation) controls the area.
I also remember a policewoman taking a selfie inside the armored vehicle while we were under attack."
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