U.S. Soldier Killed, Another Hurt By Former Haitian Army Officer Gunman Then Shot Dead By Third American Gi

A former Haitian army officer shot and killed a U.S. soldier at a military checkpoint Thursday, the first American death from hostile fire in Haiti, Haitian and U.S. officials said.

A second American soldier was wounded before the gunman was shot and killed, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Schrager.

The gunman was a passenger in a white pickup that ran a checkpoint just after noon in the village of Bigot, about 100 miles north of the capital, Schrager said.

Two U.S. soldiers in a Humvee chased the truck and then approached on foot when its driver stopped, he said. The Haitian gunman emerged shooting, killing one soldier and wounding the other.

A third American soldier arrived and shot and killed the gunman, Schrager said.

The names of the American soldiers have not been released.

“Apparently it was a criminal activity and not directed at the U.S.,” Schrager said.

An angry crowd pursued and captured the driver of the truck, who tried to flee on foot, said Gerarde Elysse, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry of the Haitian district where the shooting occurred.

“He was almost killed by the crowd,” Elysse said. “He was saved in the nick of time.”

Elysse identified the Haitian gunman as former Maj. Aurel Frederic, a previous member of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier’s private militia, and the driver as Jules Cesar, a bodyguard to Duvalier’s interior and defense minister, Roger LaFontant.

Frederic was kicked out of the military in 1989 in a dispute with then-dictator Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril.

The U.S. soldiers were part of a Special Forces contingent stationed in outlying towns as part of the multinational force that cleared the way for elected President JeanBertrand Aristide’s return in September after three years of military rule.

Aristide issued a statement Thursday offering condolences for the soldier’s death and pledging that the incident “will not derail the process of peace and reconciliation” in Haiti.

The surviving American soldier was undergoing surgery for a wounded arm, said Schrager. He also said the driver was being questioned.

The fall of the military dictatorship has produced a crime wave, often blamed on unemployed gunmen who once enforced military rule and now are looking for another way to make a living.

Aristide has slashed the size of the army that ousted him from 6,000 men to 1,500, leaving many former soldiers without work.

Overall, however, the U.S.-led mission has encounted little resistance, and Clinton administration officials said earlier this week the U.S. military would transfer authority to a U.N. force by mid-March.

At the height of the intervention last fall, there were 21,000 U.S. soldiers in Haiti. About 6,000 remain in the multinational force.

Four other Americans participating in the mission have died. One, a translator for the international police force, died in an accident. Three U.S. soldiers have committed suicide.