A Canadian missionary was shot to death on Thursday as he left a bank in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, according to authorities.
The priest, Richard Joyal, 62, of Manitoba, was shot three times in the back by a man on a motorcycle who snatched a bag the priest was carrying, according to a police official.
Joyal, who belonged to the Catholic order of the Societe de Marie, had previously worked in the Philippines and Ivory Coast, according to a source familiar his activities in Haiti.
The fatal ambush of bank customers, typically after someone has made a large withdrawal, is not new in Haiti. The police have mounted special operations in an attempt to crack down on the crime.
The Canadian government recently issued a travel advisory for its citizens visiting the Caribbean nation, warning them to “exercise a high degree of caution due to high crime rates in various parts of the country and ongoing political tensions.”
The Haitian government has protested against recent foreign travel advisories by both Canada and the United States, saying that, despite limited police resources, Haiti has one of the lowest crime rates in the Caribbean.
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