‘Come Save My Life:’ Haiti’s Moïse Made Frantic Call To Officer Before He Was Assassinated

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse made a frantic phone call to a trained officer during the final moments of his life, asking the officer to “save” him, a report said.

After calling for help from his security forces to no avail, Moïse made a final call to a trained officer with the Haiti National Police, the Miami Herald reported.

“I need your assistance now! My life is in danger, Come quick; come save my life,” Moïse was reported to have said in the phone call. Before the call ended, there was a sudden silence and then the sound of an assault rifle, according to the officer, who spoke with the outlet on condition of anonymity.

The officer then called on other officers to proceed to Moïse’s neighbourhood in Pelerin 5.

At least three other people who were in the Haitian president’s residence during the assassination said that the perpetrators ransacked the home and shot Moïse after identifying the president through a caller, the report said.

The officer, confirming the report of another person familiar with the probe, said: “They came inside, went straight to the room and kept talking to someone on the phone to identify the president.” “They turned the house upside down,” he added.

When the assassin described the president’s profile to the other person on the line, “he turned to face the president and shot him without any conversation,” the Miami Herald reported.

More than a week after the brazen assassination that rocked Haiti’s capital to the core, Moïse’s supporters continue to call for justice.

In Trou-du-Nord, Moïse was remembered as a poor sugar cane farmer’s son during a memorial, The New York Times reported. “President, you’re gone – they killed the body, but they can’t kill your dream!” the voice from a loudspeaker said.

Photos from the memorial service showed Moïse supporters in tears. A street protest was also initiated after the mass. During the rally, protesters said, “They killed Jojo. We’ll kill them too.”

Among the 18 people arrested so far in relation to the assassination is Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who is said to have assembled a security force to protect him when he becomes Haiti’s president.

The Haitian National Police Director General Leon Charles said Sanon, who was a Florida-based physician, “came with the intention to take over as President of the Republic.

A source with knowledge of the investigation into the assassination who spoke on condition of anonymity said Sanon claimed innocence, CNN reported.

The source said Sanon explained he was unaware of the weaponry and other materials seized from a building linked to him during a police raid. Sanon also reportedly denied ownership of the property.

The 63-year-old doctor insisted that “he doesn’t know anything at all,” the insider said.

Sanon is accused of having hired assailants in the middle-of-the-night attack that injured Moïse’s wife, Martine Moïse. Martine has since returned to Haiti following the killing of her husband, BBC reported.

A Haitian official confirmed Martine’s return. She was photographed wearing a bulletproof vest as she got off a plane at the Port-au-Prince airport over the weekend. Martine was flown to a Miami hospital for treatment. In a recorded audio message after Moïse’s killing on July 7, Martine said the “pain will never pass.”

Moïse climbed to power in 2017. His administration was accused of corruption and over the past months, there have been protests against his regime.