Haiti police say they have president's suspected killers, still hunting masterminds

PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 8 (Reuters) - Haiti's police has killed or apprehended the suspected killers of President Jovenel Moise, officials said on Thursday, and are hunting for the masterminds behind the assassination that stunned the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Moise, 53, was shot dead early on Wednesday at his home by what officials said was a commando of apparently foreign, trained killers, pitching the poorest country in the Americas deeper into turmoil amidst political divisions, hunger, and widespread gang violence.

Police Chief Leon Charles said in a televised briefing on Thursday that authorities had tracked down the suspected assassins to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a northern suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince.

A fierce firefight lasted late into the night and six suspects were taken in custody, while three corpses were retrieved. Police were heavily patrolling the area from early on Thursday.

"We have the physical authors, now we are looking for the intellectual authors," Charles said.

James Solages, a U.S. citizen of Haitian descent, is one of the six people arrested so far, reported the Washington Post, citing Mathias Pierre, Haiti's minister of elections and interparty relations. He told the paper that at least one other detainee is also believed to be a Haitian American.

Officials in mostly French and Creole-speaking Haiti said on Wednesday that the assassins appeared to have spoken in English and Spanish.

A crowd of locals gathered on Thursday morning to watch the police operation unfold, with some setting fire to the suspects' cars and to the house where they had bunkered down. Bullets were strewn in the street.

"Burn them!", shouted hundreds of locals gathered outside the police station where the suspects were being held.

Charles said it was the local population that had helped police track down the suspects but he implored citizens not to take justice into their own hands.

Earlier on Thursday, locals brought two corpses of suspected assassins to the Petionville police station.

A 15-day state of emergency was declared on Wednesday to help authorities apprehend the killers. But interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said on Thursday it was time for the economy to reopen and said he had given instructions for the airport to restart operations.