A Haitian doctor living in the U.S. state of Florida was arrested, police chief Leon Charles said at a news conference. The suspected killers called him after the attack and evidence was found in his flat, Charles said.

The 63-year-old doctor recently arrived in Haiti on a private plane to seize the presidency, he said. He allegedly hired Colombian mercenaries through a private Venezuelan security firm based in Florida. The doctor is the third U.S. resident of Haitian origin – and the 21st person overall – to be detained as a suspect in the case.

The other two also reportedly lived in Florida. The U.S. state is some 1,000 kilometres away from Haiti.

Police have said 26 Colombian mercenaries were involved in the murder overall, three were killed, 18 suspects were in detention and police were seeking the remaining five. High-ranking U.S. officials who are expected to help with the investigation met with Charles on Sunday.

Moise, 53, was shot dead at his residence in Port-au-Prince in the early hours of Wednesday. His wife Martine was seriously injured and taken to Florida for treatment. The reasons for the attack remain unclear.

Moise, in office since 2017, was extremely unpopular. He was accused of corruption, links to brutal gangs and autocratic tendencies. The impoverished Caribbean nation was already gripped by a power struggle.

Two men have declared themselves interim prime minister, and the Senate elected its leader Joseph Lambert to succeed Moise as president on an interim basis on Friday.

Lambert supports Ariel Henry as prime minister. Henry had been appointed as premier by Moise on Monday but interim prime minister Claude Joseph has been in charge of the government since the murder.

Presidential and legislative elections in the country are scheduled for September.

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and First Lady Martine were riddled with 12 bullets and he had his eye gouged out during Wednesday’s brutal attack, which killed him and left his wife seriously injured.

James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, both US citizens of Haitian descent, were arrested along with 15 Colombian nationals over Wednesday’s brazen raid on Moïse’s mansion in the hills above Port-au-Prince, according to Haitian police.

Solanges, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is the president of a charity based in South Florida and claims to be a former bodyguard at Canada’s embassy in Haiti. Vincent lives in the Miami area. Both men were born in Haiti, officials said.

Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police also clarified that only three other suspects were killed by police, and not as earlier reported, adding that eight others are on the run. He identified all the dead and at-large suspects as Colombians.

Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,’ Charles said. ‘There were … 26 Colombians, identified by their passports … and two Haitian Americans as well.’

‘We are going to bring them to justice,’ he said as the 17 suspects sat handcuffed on the floor during a press conference on Thursday night, where a variety of weapons and Colombian passports were arrayed on a table.

Haitian authorities have still not revealed a motive for the killing, what evidence led them to the suspects, or who they believe masterminded the plot.

Speaking on a local radio station, the prime minister said the attack was carried out by an “armed commando group” that included foreign elements.

Joseph said in a statement quoted in media outlets “Around one o’clock in the morning, during the night of Tuesday 6th to Wednesday 7th of July 2021, a group of unidentified individuals, including some speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the president and fatally injured the head of state.”

The Prime Minister added that “all measures are being taken to guarantee the continuity of the state and to protect the nation.”

The attack occurred amid a rising wave of politically linked violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation. The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moïse’s rule.

53-year-old Moïse had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Opposition leaders have accused him of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency that answers only to the president.

Haiti was scheduled to hold general elections later this year.