Signalfire

SANTO DOMINGO – Two people were killed and six others wounded when police opened fire on a crowd that gathered as they were trying to arrest a suspected drug dealer, Dominican authorities said Thursday.

The incident took place Wednesday night in San Francisco, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of the Dominican capital.

Agents of the DNCD counternarcotics bureau were in the process of arresting suspect Encarnacion Castillo when he attacked them with a machete, forcing the agents to respond with their guns, the National Police said in a preliminary report.

As the incident was unfolding, “a crowd that witnessed the event threw stones at the DNCD agents,” leaving them no choice but to shoot, according to the police report.

The wounded, including a 9-year-old boy, are being treated at a hospital in Azua.

Authorities are investigating the shooting, the National Police said. EFE

SANTO DOMINGO – At least three people, among them a police officer, were injured in violent protests Monday, the second consecutive day of such disturbances in the Capotillo sector of this capital, the government said.

The violence has been erupting during protests over the death of a man who was allegedly shot several times by a police patrol on Friday and subsequently died on Sunday.

The demonstrators set up blockades and burned tires on the streets of the Capotillo neighborhood, which is in northern Santo Domingo,

The civilians injured on Monday were identified as Dario Amparo and Eduardo Arturo Duran, but the name of the police officer who was injured has not been made public by the authorities yet, a police source told Efe.

Amparo and Duran were admitted to Francisco Moscoso Puello Hospital in Capotillo, but the police officer was taken to the police force’s special hospital.

The protests began on Sunday night after the death of 28-year-old Jose Luis Estevez Familia, who was allegedly shot by police in the Capotillo neighborhood on Friday.

The police source said that on the first day of the protests three civilians were injured: Ana Peralta Almanzar, 33; Victor Manuel Acosta, 25, and Emilis Lizardo, 10.

Capotillo residents said that officers with the police command known as “Los Gavilanes” are the ones responsible for the man’s death, but the police reject that version.

Protest organizers told local television stations that the demonstrations will continue until the killers of Estevez Familia are brought to justice. EFE

DAJABON, Dominican Republic – Dominican soldiers posted on the Dominican-Haitian border shot and killed on Saturday two undocumented Haitians who were suspected of taking back to their home country a motorcycle they had stolen in Dajabon, army officials said.

The national police force and the army could not reveal the names of the victims since they carried no identification.

The incident occurred at 4:00 a.m. local time in the town of Vigia, on the northwestern border province of Dajabon.

According to military souces, a joint operation by army soldiers and Cesfront border-patrol guards attempted to stop the two undocumented Haitians as they were riding the supposedly stolen motorcycle.

Army authorities said that allegedly the two foreigners tried to attack the soldiers, “so they had to resist by using their guns” and killing the two men.

The bodies were taken to the coroner’s office in the northern city of Santiago for an autopsy.

A commission made up of the army, Cesfront and the national police has opened an investigation, while the soldiers involved in the incident have been placed under arrest.

SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic – One inmate died and another eight were injured in a prison riot in the northern Dominican city of San Francisco de Macoris, the police said. Read more…