An American citizen and another man believed to be Haitian-American were reportedly arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
James Solages, a US citizen, was identified as a suspect by the Associated Press and The Washington Post. Both the AP and the Washington Post quoted Mathias Pierre, Haiti's minister of elections and inter-party relations.
Further to the investigation, Carl Henry Destin, deputy magistrate of Pétion-Ville, a commune located in Port-au-Prince, affirmed to Le Nouvelliste that the office and the bedroom of the president were ransacked. On his corpse, they observed twelve holes "made with large-caliber weapons and 9-millimeter projectiles".
"We found him lying on his back, with his blue pants, his white shirt stained with blood, his mouth open, and his left eye perforated. We saw a bullet hole in the forehead, one in each nipple, three in the hip, and one in the abdomen," he said.
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There were found 5.56 and 7.62 millimeters shells between the doorway and the interior of the residence, located in the Pelerin neighborhood.
He added that, according to witnesses, no other person was shot, except the first lady, who is hospitalized in Florida, after it was believed in the first hours that she had also died.
The President's daughter, Jomarlie Jovenel Moïse, who was present at the time of the attack, hid in her brother's room. The maid and the guard were tied up by the commando members, who shouted "DEA operation" when they entered the property. The U.S. denied the involvement of the U.S. anti-drug agency in the incident.
Hours after the assassination, it was learned that the Haitian National Police killed four of the alleged attackers and also arrested two other alleged participants in the armed assault.
The assassination took place less than three months before the presidential and legislative elections in Haiti, scheduled for September 26, for which Moïse could not run.