US government employee from Florida shot to death while visiting family in Haiti

By Tamara Lush (CP) – 4 hours ago 27 Aug 10

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — An American citizen who worked for the Department of Homeland Security has been shot to death during a home invasion, his friends and officials said Sunday.

Ronald Chery, a Haitian-American who worked as a fraud officer in the Miami DHS office, died during the robbery on Friday, said a spokesman for MINUSTAH, the UN-backed international police force in the country.

Chery was on a personal visit to a home in Petionville, one of the wealthier and safer suburbs of the country’s impoverished capital.

“He was down there with part of his family and he got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning in June to people visiting Haiti. At least two American citizens have been shot and killed this year while traveling in cars near the country’s main airport.

Details of Friday’s robbery were unclear. The Haitian National Police are in charge of the investigation and do not have publicly available reports on the case.

Parnell Duverger, a friend of Chery and a professor at Broward College in Florida, said a group of men arrived at Chery’s family home on Friday, and the housekeeper allowed them inside.

Chery tried talking to the men, Duverger said, and was shot. Chery’s mother and brother were tied up and beaten, he added.

“Ronald was well-known in the Haitian community in South Florida,” said Duverger. “Unfortunately these kinds of things occur a lot in Haiti. For a lot of us in the Haitian community, things like this just bring despair.”

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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3 thoughts on “US government employee from Florida shot to death while visiting family in Haiti

  1. DO you know that once your some body working for American government you are a target person among the Haitians who are not supporting America? I did mention that so many time in my comments to let everyone know that there are many teams who are working to execute their own plan to discourage anyone who is cooperating with US government at any level?

    Because Ronald Chery in an Officer,they report that, but, in fact, there are so many cases like that happened in Haiti.After the earthquke, people in Haiti report to me that, the Chimeres have killed snd burned several Americans who came to serve and rescue people in Haiti in many capacities. I don’t hear nothing about those cases. The silence about the attack against American citizen in Haiti go to far, specially Haitian-American.

  2. What an unnecessary loss of life!

    What a dispicable crime by a bunch of reckless thugs!

    ONE HAS TO WONDER:
    What has been the role of the MINUSTAH in Haiti over the past 6 years– a so-called military and police force which failed to provide basic guidance, support, and security to the Haitian population in the wake of the quake and which is unable and unwilling to do so now.

    They are using Haiti’s prime resources, scaring the hell of the population by predicting imminent quakes, purchasing the paysants’ arable lands to build their private mansions, and standing on the sideline while native Haitians are being executed.

    We, Haitians must awake from our current lethargic state.

    Ronald Chery, a man to be proud of, a Haitian who represented his native country so well in the US did not have to die.

  3. I am a former US Govt employee. I am now a Cultural Diversity trainer for law Enforcement Agencies in the U.S. In the Haitian mentality, When a man is part of a law enforcement agency, “you are considered as a bad guy”. I received many, many threats myself while I was working for USDOJ/CRS and EOIR. For example, a judge can make a decision about a case on a removal proceeding motion but the asylum seeker always always take the judge decision personal and threats every Haitian US employee present with a statement: I see your face or I am waiting for you at home”
    I also lost another friend in Haiti previously (on the 90’s) working as a detention officer for the USCIS> he was killed while visiting his family in Haiti.
    My suggestion : All Haitians working for the US Immigration services traveling to Haiti should be escorted, be very careful about places you go to; or don’t go there until there is an escort protective services to provide secuity for you.

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