A photojournalist was wounded after a Haitian lawmaker opened fire on an angry crowd that had assembled outside the country’s parliament in Port-au-Prince. The violence follows a week of anti-government demonstrations.
Video footage shows Senator Jean Marie Ralph Fethiere getting out of his car and firing several shots with a handgun, as onlookers scramble for cover. A bullet fragment hit Chery Dieu-Nalio, an Associated Press photographer, in the jaw, while a second man, identified as a security guard, was also wounded. The injuries were not life-threatening, according to reports.
Fethiere later justified his actions, claiming that his vehicle had been attacked by “groups of violent militants.”
“Armed individuals threatened me. It was proportional. Equal force, equal response,” he told Haitian radio station Signal FM after the incident.
Prompted by skyrocketing fuel prices and worsening living standards, Haitians have been demonstrating for the past week against their president, Jovenel Moise. Fethiere and his colleagues had gathered at parliament on Monday in an attempt to confirm a new prime minister, but protests outside the building prevented the proceedings from going forward. Another Haitian senator was photographed brandishing a handgun as he moved through a crowd outside parliament, although he reportedly did not fire his weapon.
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