A mob snatched two men from police custody and hacked them to death in Haiti, fueled by suspicion that they were buying ammunition or guns for the gangs that have terrorized the country, according to police.
The disturbing incident happened Friday in Mibalè, according to the Haitian National Police.
Police said the two men — one a police officer himself, the other a security agent for Haiit's provisional electoral council — had been found carrying suitcases full of money, including $20,000 in U.S. currency, plus two pistols and a box of ammunition.
Believing that the men intended to use the large sum of money to stock up for one of the gangs battling for control of Haiti, a mob of people forcibly took them from police custody, officials said.
Police said in a Facebook post that a crowd invaded a small police post where the men were taken and grabbed them.
They then hacked the men to death.
The killings highlight the intense anger felt by Haitians after months of kidnappings and killings by gangs, and the police force's inability to stop them.
Over 1,500 people have been killed in Haiti this year from gang violence — many of them children. Dozens of others have been lynched, stoned, or burned alive by armed "vigilante" gangs, the U.N. human rights office said last week.
