PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Jovenel Moise[i][j], Haiti's president, was assassinated in an attack at his home around 1 a.m.
Wednesday, according to CNN.
The gunmen were stopped at a police checkpoint at the bottom of the hill the president lived on.
But they were allowed through on the instructions of the office of the chief of Haiti’s National Police, having falsely claimed to be U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Haiti expert Kevin Pina told i24 News.
The gunmen arrived in a convoy made up of five cars and were heard telling those inside the premises to put weapons down and, again, that they were from the DEA, according to footage cited by the CBS News.
President Moise was killed inside his home, while his wife, Martine, was badly injured.
The New York Times reports she is now receiving treatment in a hospital in Florida.
Haiti’s security forces have since killed four and detained two of a group ‘mercenaries,’ according to Leon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, cited by The Miami Herald.
In an interview with The New York Times, the country’s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said that he was the one running the country at the moment.
