Police in Haiti say officers shot and killed former rebel leader Wilfort Ferdinand

Wilfort Ferdinand, second left, talks with a member of his security team in Gonaives, March 6, 2004. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A spokesman for Haiti’s National Police said Thursday that officers killed former rebel leader Wilfort Ferdinand after they accused him of opening fire at a police checkpoint in the coastal town of Gonaïves earlier this week.

Ferdinand was a suspected gang leader who played a key role in the 2004 uprising that ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“Police had no intention of killing anyone,” police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis Jeune told The Associated Press of Tuesday’s shooting.

He said that Ferdinand had approached the checkpoint in a car with tinted windows only to back up and then open fire on officers, who returned fire and killed him and an unidentified person traveling with him.

Jeune said it was a routine checkpoint aimed at cracking down on the Kokorat San Ras gang, which operates in the Artibonite region and is known for its extreme violence.

Local media reported that shortly after the killing, heavy gunfire was heard in the area.

Gruesome pictures of the killing were shared on social media, sparking ongoing protests in Gonaïves that have shut down businesses.

Ferdinand was known as Kòmandan Ti Wil and led the Artibonite Resistance Front. He was an ally of Guy Philippe, another former rebel leader.

The Associated Press