Guard killed in gunfire as 170 prisoners break out of Haiti jail after stealing rifles

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - In a dramatic jailbreak, over 170 prisoners are said to have escaped a prison in Haiti’s Arcahaie area, after killing a guard and stealing five rifles. 

The prison, located 45 kms north of the country’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, faced a riot leading to the prisoners escaping barefoot, Inspector Garry Derosiers, the national police spokesman told reporters. 

Derosiers has however not spoken about how the prisoners broke out or released any names of the armed individuals. So far, reports state that the prisoners initiated the jailbreak while they were being taken out from their crowded compounds for showers. 

According to the Le Nouvelliste newspaper, Arcahaie prison manager Heurtelou Paul Colson said that one prisoner had climbed over a wall and fallen to his death, while two others were hospitalised after suffering injuries.

The prison manager was further quoted as saying that Yvener Carelus, who was serving time for kidnapping, was the mastermind behind the escape and was arrested shortly after the escape. 

The Justice Minister Camille Edouard Junior was quoted in the report as saying, “He planned the escape from the inside with a few accomplices,” adding that security was being boosted at prisons across the country.

Derosiers confirmed that out of over a 100 fugitives, 11 of those that escaped had been detained, while a manhunt had been launched to trap the others. As part of the manhunt being led by SWAT and defense forces teams along with UN peacekeepers in the country - the police have set up various checkpoints near the prison. 

Authorities informed that since the inmates were not wearing their prison uniform, it had become easier for them to blend in with the general population. 

Police are said to have detained several people who were found without IDs and Residents living close by have been urged to cooperate with the police and remain cautious. 

The Haitian government expressed its condemnation over the ‘prison mutiny’ on Twitter and a statement released by the Prime Minister’s office said that the uprising “was led by heavily armed individuals.”  

The U.S. Embassy in the Haitian capital said that the incident was a “violent prison break” and warned American citizens to avoid the area.