Four suspected assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were killed by police on Wednesday night — and two others were arrested, Haiti’s police chief, Léon Charles said.
Three police officers were held hostage and freed in the takedown, he said, according to a report by Associated Press.
Moïse, 53, was assassinated in a gun attack at his home outside Port-au-Prince around 1 a.m. Wednesday.
First lady Martine Moïse was also wounded in the attack. She has been flown to Miami, Florida for treatment. She is said to be in critical, but stable condition.
Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s ambassador to the US, in an interview with Reuters described the assassins as “well-trained professional commandos” who were feared to have already fled the country.
Edmond also called the assassins “foreign mercenaries” who tried to pass themselves off as agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Following the assissinatoin of Moïse, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph closed Haiti’s borders and enacted martial law in the already-unstable country that is plagued by gang violence, surging inflation and political protests.