Thursday morning at around 4:30 am, in the Ti Boukan locality in Bassin-Bleu, a passenger student from the Port-de-Paix / Port-au-Prince bus was fatally injured by bullets in unclear circumstances. He died while being transported to hospital.

In the statement of the owner of the bus, Hermann Lubin says "We were on the road and the vehicle behind us, that of the Mayor of Port-de-Paix, Josué Alusma fired in our direction because we could not let him overtake us, because of the narrow road..."

While deploring the death of the young student and promising to accompany his relatives. Mayor Alusma rejected these accusations, explaining that in reality his vehicle was being chased by unidentified individuals who resented his life. He says that it was these individuals who opened fire on his car and hit the bus. He called on the authorities to open an investigation to shed light on the circumstances of the tragedy, criticizing the decision of the police authorities to let the bus resume its route.

Following this incident, Claude Frantz Antoine, the Government Commissioner, placed in custody Alusma Mayor and a police officer of his close guard at the Port-de-Paix prosecutor's office for questioning. It appears from some sources that Mayor Alusma was not allowed to return home after his hearing and that his custody would have been extended as well as that of his security officer, due to some inconsistencies between the testimony of the two men.

TB/ HaitiLibre