U.S. Envoy’s Guard Sought in Haitian Employees’ Deaths

A bodyguard of the U.S. ambassador to Haiti is the chief suspect in the killings of two Haitian employees of the embassy who were shot during an armed robbery, a U.S. official said Friday.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager said American officials want to question Francois College, 25, in connection with the robbery and killings. Schrager would not say whether College was U.S. Ambassador William L. Swing’s bodyguard, but another U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed that College was one of about eight guards who protect the ambassador and other senior embassy officials.

College is being sought in Port-au-Prince for questioning in the robbery Thursday, in which a gunman hijacked an American Embassy vehicle, killing a Haitian man and woman and seriously injuring another Haitian man, all of whom were embassy employees. The gunman made off with about $60,000.

The victims had just left a bank with pay packets for embassy personnel when a man flagged down their car, a U.S. Embassy official said.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the three victims had given the man a ride, but he shot them and escaped with the money. The survivor recounted the incident before being airlifted to the United States, the official added.

The American Embassy distributed a “Wanted” poster to security forces and local media with a description of the man and telephone numbers to call with information.

U.S. personnel went to the man’s house Thursday but found it empty. “No trace, nothing there. His wife was gone,” the official said.

Meanwhile, a controversy broke out between the U.S.-installed Haitian government and the American military over claims that U.S. troops on Wednesday fired tear gas at demonstrators loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

A spokesman for the Aristide government said American troops fired tear gas on demonstrators in Cap Haitien after they protested against a right-wing bishop Aristide had embraced in a gesture of reconciliation.

But U.S. military officials denied that the troops, who have been greeted as heroes since arriving to restore Aristide, had used tear gas to disperse the crowd of Haitians.