Student shot dead during shootouts-filled weekend in PaP metro area

The Haitian Times
www.haitiantimes.com 
By Juhakenson Blaise

PORT-AU-PRINCE — A bandit riding in the back of a motorcycle shot a college student dead while she was inside a minibus in Bois Verna Saturday, the bus driver told Infos Sans Limites.

Osny Zidor, 27, was a fifth-year student at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Haiti, UEH, according to information found on her student I.D.

The shooting occurred at about 4:00 p.m. on Apr. 23. The bandits were riding on a red-and-black motorcycle, without a license plate when they rode along the minibus and shot inside it. They continued riding past after the shooting, according to the bus driver, who was not identified.

Authorities have not revealed a motive for the young woman’s shooting.

The young woman’s shooting occurred during a weekend filled with shootings in various neighborhoods across the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. 

Gunshots were also heard on Saturday night in Turgeau, located next to Bois Verna. Details about that shooting were not immediately available.

In Butte Boyer the following morning, two rival gangs exchanged heavy gunfire from the first light of day and throughout the day Sunday. The gunbattle forced terrified residents to either hide in fear or flee their homes.

Some residents sought refuge in neighborhoods around Butte Boyer, but mainly in Zone Tè, sources based in the area said. The Haitian Times is not revealing their identity as a safety measure.

The shooting started around 6:30 a.m., jolting the neighborhood awake. Residents said the 400 Mawozo gang reportedly wanted to install a gang leader in Croix-des-Missions, an area in Butte Boyer that Chyen Mechan, or Mad Dog, already controls. 

One mother-of-three said while she and her children cowered in corners inside their home, she saw at least four masked men, “armed to the teeth” walking around her yard.

“We saw a lot of them, some jumping walls,” the woman said. “I saw them go over a wall next door, and others walking around our house and behind our house. Later, I saw two more.”

Police later responded and launched an operation in the afternoon, Garry Desrosiers, a Haitian National Police spokesperson, told The Haitian Times. He did not provide further details.