At least three folks had been killed, together with two journalists and a police officer, when armed males fired on reporters gathered for the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday morning, in line with two witnesses and the president of the nation’s ruling Transitional Presidential Council.
The Health Ministry didn’t instantly reply to cellphone calls looking for remark, and a police spokesman stated he had no details about the taking pictures. But a neighborhood gang chief named Johnson (Izo) André of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition posted a video on social media claiming accountability for the assault.
In a press release posted on social media, the prime minister’s workplace stated, “This heinous act, which targets an establishment devoted to well being and life, constitutes an unacceptable assault on the very foundations of our society.”
Jephte Bazil, a reporter with the web information outlet Machann Zen Haïti, stated by cellphone exterior a close-by hospital the place the injured had been taken: “I’m nonetheless in shock — they shot at us. Some went down. They had been hit by the bullets.”
As he spoke on late Tuesday afternoon, the sound of gunfire might be heard within the background. “There remains to be taking pictures,” he stated.
At least seven others had been wounded, together with one other police officer, within the taking pictures on Tuesday at State University of Haiti Hospital, identified domestically because the General Hospital. Video footage shared on social media confirmed bloodstained flooring. Bodies might be seen mendacity immobile in a pool of blood, in line with the movies, together with one filmed from a drone.
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