(9 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pont-Sondé, Haiti – 8 October 2024
1. Various of Elvens François looking at his nephew in coffin
2. Various of François’ wife and son at funeral
3. François walking out with coffin
4. Various of band and relatives walking with hearse as it carries coffin to cemetery
5. Men moving coffin as relatives heard crying
6. Close of mourner
7. Band playing
8. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Elvens François, survivor of gang attack and uncle of victim:
“Three men holding guns. They attacked me, cornered me and took everything from me.”
9. Close of François’ leg
10. François crying
11. Various of Frantz Baptism, resident and witness, showing plastic bag with bullet shells
12. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Frantz Baptism, resident and witness of the attack:
“The resistance pushed them (gang) and they left the area. But when we returned here, we saw bodies everywhere, one dead here, two dead on the other side – bodies all around.”
13. Mid of cemetery
14. Close of machete
15. SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Jacques (no last name given) resident of Pont-Sondé:
“Those bandits came and hid inside the factory and shot at the people passing by. But it is the state that is responsible – if they had sent armed tanks to secure the population, they would not have died like this. It is the state’s fault.”
16. Various of houses with bullet holes in walls
STORYLINE:
A funeral was held on Tuesday for a victim of a vicious gang attack in Haiti, which left more than 70 dead and dozens injured.
Jean Louis Jeune Gracien, 41, was buried in Pont-Sondé Tuesday in a simple but emotional ceremony attended by his 14-year-old son, his wife, Ovenia Joaunis, as well as other relatives and friends.
He was one of more than 70 victims in the attack on the town on Thursday, one of Haiti’s biggest massacres in recent history.
Earlier in the day, Gracien’s uncle, Elvens François, recalled the night of the attack as he walked around the cemetery preparing for the burial.
He recalled how he was carrying a plastic bag with his belongings as he prepared to flee his house when three men gripping automatic weapons surrounded him.
One held François from the back while the other two gang members faced him.
“They attacked me, cornered me and took everything from me,” he said, tears in his eyes.
He doesn’t know why he was spared.
A handful of people who remained in the small town in central Haiti after Thursday’s assault blamed the government for the attack by the Gran Grif gang.
Another survivor of the attack who wanted to be identified only as Jacques sat in the cemetery, holding tight to a machete.
Jacques said that the gangs were hiding in an old factory and shooting at people who walked past it.
“The state is responsible. If they had sent armed tanks to secure the population, they would not have died like this,” Jacques said.
Frantz Baptism showed a plastic bag full of bullet shells he collected on the streets after the attack.
Baptism, a security guard, said he saw a local self-defense group trying to keep the gang at bay.
““The resistance pushed them (gang) and they left the area. But when we returned here, we saw bodies everywhere, one dead here, two dead on the other side – bodies all around,” said Baptism.
However, according to Haiti’s National Human Rights Defence Network, it was those very efforts of self-defence that sparked the attack.
Pont-Sondé was once a bustling community with a thriving marketplace near the mighty Artibonite River, Haiti’s longest.
AP video shot by Pierre Luxama
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/5ecb60a69d0e423e9be328f7de679402
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in October 14, 2024, 3:04 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
