As negotiators worked to secure the release of 17 people associated with an Ohio-based missionary group, their kidnappers released a video threatening their lives.
The leader of the Haitian gang that is holding 17 people associated with an American missionary group has threatened to kill the hostages if its ransom demands are not met, according to two people present when the threat was made and captured in a video recording. “I prefer that thunder burns me, if I don’t get what I need. You see those Americans, I will prefer to kill them and I will unload a big weapon to each of their heads,” the leader of the gang known as 400 Mawozo, Wilson Joseph, said in the video. “I mean what I said, that’s it.” Mr. Joseph was speaking to a crowd of hundreds of gang members in the open, on the streets of Croix-des-Bouquet, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, according to two people present when the remarks were made.
