A witness to the attack told Reuters that armed men opened fire on a group of journalists who were attending a government press conference on Tuesday to announce the reopening of Haiti’s main public hospital, killing at least two and injuring others.
According to the witness, a police officer and a journalist were killed on the spot.
A request for information from Reuters was not immediately answered by Haiti’s national police.
In a Facebook post, the interim presidential council warned that the conduct would have repercussions.
It said, “We extend our condolences to the families of all the victims, especially to the Haitian National Police and all the journalist associations.”
In order to attend the press conference with Haiti’s new health minister in the downtown area of the capital Port-au-Prince, journalists were asked to come at the hospital starting at 8 a.m. (1300 GMT). Around 11 a.m., gunshots started as they were still waiting for the minister.
When former Prime Minister Garry Conille was fired after only six months in office, Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe Blema was appointed in a cabinet reshuffle in late November.
The largest public hospital in the nation, the State University of Haiti Hospital (referred to locals as the General Hospital), has been shuttered since a wave of gang attacks in March that resulted in the overthrow of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
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