CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti (AP) – A prison warden was one of at least eight people murdered Thursday after several inmates tried to escape from a prison in Haiti’s capital, a police officer and witnesses said.
The incident took place in northeastern Port-au-Prince at the Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison, which was built by Canada in 2012 and is known for a 2014 outbreak that saw more than 300 inmates escape.
Residents in the area who refused to be identified for safety concerns told The Associated Press that they saw a group of heavily armed men start shooting at prison guards before the inmates began to flee.
Several hours after the start of the shooting, gunshots could still be heard from the prison.
The police officer who confirmed the prison warden’s murder to the AP and refused to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media said authorities were preparing for a raid on the prison and described the inmates as armed and dangerous.
At the time of the 2014 outbreak, the prison had 899 inmates, about 130 over its capacity.
During Thursday’s incident, an escaped 37-year-old Jhon Hippolyte was shot in the back. He told the AP that he was serving a sentence for murder and was in infirmary when he saw everyone running away and decided to join them.
AP reporters saw the bodies of at least seven men lining streets near the prison. They had been shot. Their identities were not immediately available and it was not clear whether they were prisoners or who had murdered them.
Video taken by residents shows a police officer leading a group of men tied with a rope. It was not immediately clear whether they were prisoners.
The authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.