12912: Mob storms Haitian jail, kills murder suspect (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 27 (Reuters) - An enraged mob stormed a Haitian
jail on Tuesday, seizing a murder suspect who was then lynched and set on
fire in the provincial city of Arcahaie, Radio Metropole reported.
     The dead suspect, known only as "Ti Blan," had been arrested the
previous day for allegedly killing another man in an argument with a knife,
according to the report.
     Haitian National Police officers fired above the heads of the surging
crowd to disperse them, but were quickly overcome, police spokesman Jean
Dady Simeon told the privately owned radio station.
     "We have dispatched additional units to Arcahaie to make sure that
calm prevails," Simeon said.
     No other prisoners were harmed or released during the attack,
according to the report, and the jail was not damaged. Arcahaie is about 15
miles (25 km) north of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.
     It was the second time this month that crowds stormed a jail in Haiti.
In early August, Amiot Metayer, a one-time supporter of Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was freed along with more than 150 other prisoners
when supporters from his "Cannibal Army" gang stormed the jail where he was
being held in the coastal city of Gonaives.