Ten detainees and a police officer were killed Friday in Haiti during an attempt to escape from the prison of Croix-des-Bouquets, on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince, said Monday evening the spokesperson for the national police, Gary Desrosiers. “Three police officers are also seriously injured and their conditions would necessitate a medical evacuation to Cuba,” he added.
At midday Friday, an unknown number of detainees, in possession of firearms, tried to escape from the second penitentiary center in the country, taking hostage “three police officers and a nurse”, said Gary Desrosiers. As they made their way inside the high-security facility, the prisoners seized three additional weapons including an assault rifle, stored in an office.
A massive escape last February
Called in as reinforcements, specialized police units intervened and exchanges of fire began. The four weapons illegally introduced into the prison were recovered as well as the three that were part of the arsenal of the guards. “A police officer was placed in isolation at the level of the central direction of the judicial police and an investigation is underway to determine the circumstances” of entry of firearms into the cells, said the spokesperson for the forces of the Haitian order.
In February 2021, more than 400 prisoners had escaped in broad daylight from this same penitentiary center. Twenty-five people, including the prison director, were killed at the time. This massive escape was made possible by a cruel lack of monitors and by the complicity of some of them, according to the conclusions of the investigation carried out by a Haitian human rights organization.
