Children sleep on the floor of a school-turned-shelter after being forced to leave their home in Cite Soleil due to clashes between armed gangs, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, July 23, 2022. (Photos :AP)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – Gunmen believed to be members of the notorious 400 Mawozo gang shot and killed a senior police officer as he attended service at Assembly of God Church sunday.
Media reports identified the officer as Inspector Réginald Laleau and that his assassination followed threats by the gang to execute officers at the armored unit of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) whose vehicles, nicknamed by the bandits Men lap fe san, patrol the gang -controlled territories in the capital.
The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, Joseph Wilson, alias Lanmò San jou, had threatened to kill the police officers from one of the armored vehicles, and later on Sunday there were several clashes and firefights between the police and the members. of the gang, causing widespread panic in the area.
Laleau joins the list, along with 25 of his colleagues, of police officers killed by gang members since January, according to Lionel Lazarre, coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers.
Children forced from their homes in Cite Soleil due to clashes between armed gangs, react to a photographer visiting a school turned into a makeshift shelter in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday.