Assassinations of Little Haiti journalists

[1] There was further interest in whether the murders were ordered by the Haitian military regime as that could possibly change the status of refugees from economic to political asylum seekers.

[2] In addition to the journalists, radio host Ringo Cayard owned a building that was bombed after D'Or's murder, and Daniel Buron, a bus driver who supported democracy, was assassinated on 9 March 1994 in Little Haiti.

[7][8][9] Jean-Bertrand Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president on 7 February 1991 after a long history of dictatorships and a new Constitution.

Although President Aristide had a short-lived presidential term, he created hope among Haitians that their conditions would improve and managed to introduce some human rights reforms.

His assassin approached him and when he was close enough to Olivier, he shot the journalist three times, before making his getaway in a waiting car with a driver.

Aside from his political radio commentary, D'Or was both on the board of directors and worked as a paralegal at the Haitian Refugee Center, in addition to his involvement in multiple community education programs.

[17] After receiving several threats, Fritz D'Or was fatally shot four times and killed by Billy Alexander for US$2,000 at 8:55 p.m. on Friday, 15 March 1991.

St. Plite was the third Haitian-born journalist assassinated in Miami in three years for supporting ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The manager of the station, Arnie Premer, said St. Plite owned a driving school and was planning to open a used car dealership.

[1][30] Dona St. Plite's name appeared on a hit list of supporters of ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

They deliberated the ongoing political chaos in Haiti, including the United Nations' determination to force the military to give up power and allow Aristide to return to office by October 30, 1991.

Former interim Haitian leader Prosper Avril, who at the time lived in Miami, gives his own account of being the target of such rumors in his book An Appeal to History: The Truth about a Singular Lawsuit.

At the time of his arraignment and later his conviction for the murder of D'Or and Jean-Claude Olivier, another radio journalist, Alexander was serving a life sentence for killing Alcee Lissitte during an unrelated robbery in Fort Lauderdale in 1991.

[40] After the murders of Jean Claude Olivier and Fritz D'Or, Creole-language talk hosts, heard as far north as Palm Beach County, feared they were victims of terrorism aimed at silencing support of democracy in Haiti.

[16][38] Ron Ilhardt, the homicide detective in charge of the investigation of Jean Claude Olivier and Fritz D'Or, said, "These men were killed for words they spoke over the airwaves".