Haiti jailbreak in an attempt to free gang leader saw about 25 dead and many injured, as more than 200 prisoners broke out on Thursday.
According to reports, the Haiti jailbreak also saw the prison director and a notorious gang leader killed.
Bystanders were caught up in the violence as inmates fled the Croix-des-Bouquets jail were also among those dead.
The powerful gang leader Arnel Joseph who was killed in the mass-Haiti jailbreak was Haiti’s most-wanted criminal, prior to his arrest in 2019.
Still wearing his prison ankle cuffs, the gang leader fled as a passenger on a motorcycle that was later flagged down at a checkpoint, police spokesperson Gary Desrosiers said. Joseph turned a gun on the officers present who fatally shot him.
Some reports suggest a belief that the mass-jailbreak was an attempt to free Joseph, whose charges included rape, kidnapping and murder.
The gang leader ruled a shantytown called Village de Dieu, or Village of God, in Port-au-Prince along with some other communities in the region.
Though details of the mass-escape remain unclear, witnesses reported hearing bursts of gunfire at around midday on Thursday before inmates were seen fleeing from the prison. More than 400 prisoners were initially reported to have escaped.
The jail near Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was opened in 2012 with a maximum capacity of 872 inmates. However, at the time of the breakout on Thursday, the jail was holding more than 1500 prisoners.
Frantz Exantus, Haiti’s Communications Secretary, told a news conference on Friday: “25 people died including six prisoners and Divisional Inspector Paul Hector Joseph who was in charge of the prison.”
“Among those killed were some ordinary citizens who were killed by the prisoners during their escape,” he added.
Exantus said authorities have created several commissions and the ongoing investigation will look into who organised the breakout and why. He added in a Tweet on Friday that 60 inmates had so far been captured.
Helen La Lime, Haiti’s special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations, said in a statement: “This prison break further highlights the problem of prolonged preventive detention and prison overcrowding which remains a matter of concern that must be urgently addressed by Haitian authorities.”