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A package of Haitian “Comme il Faut” cigarettes is displayed for sale among candy at a street stand in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 29, 2019. The head of the company\u2019s security operations, a U.S. citizen, was found stabbed to death on Wednesday, August 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES<\/p>\n
REUTERS<\/p>\n
Haiti police have made an arrest in the killing of a U.S. citizen in Port-au-Prince, describing the murder as \u201ca huge plot\u201d involving several people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the presumed killer and the murder weapon, a knife,\u201d a Haitian police source confirmed to the Miami Herald, asking for anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
Michael Gallagher, the head of security for Compagnie des Tabacs Comme Il Faut S.A., was found stabbed to death inside his office at the cigarette company after hours on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Police initially took 13 employees into custody for questioning. They remain in police custody on Monday as investigators worked to determine the depth of the plot.<\/p>\n
The accused killer worked with Gallagher, the police said, and had stolen 9 million Haitian gourdes, about $68,800. Declining to provide additional details, the police source said the investigation continues.<\/p>\n
Gallagher\u2019s killing has shaken his family and those who knew him in Haiti. He is survived by his wife, who lives in the country, and his father and siblings in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an honest man. He was a good man, and he didn\u2019t deserve this,\u201d his sister, Shaay Gallagher-Starr, told the Herald. \u201cNobody deserves this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Starr said her brother was neither naive nor someone who trusted people simply because they were around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was smart. He was savvy about people, and the fact that he was betrayed so completely, it\u2019s just unbelievable to me, and it must have been unbelievable to him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gallagher spent his entire adult life working in jobs that allowed him to protect others, his family said. After the 2010 earthquake struck the country, killing over 300,000 Haitians while nearly destroying Port-au-Prince, he remained in the country just as he had years earlier when Hurricane Matthew hit, his sister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stayed right in Haiti and did everything he could to support relief efforts and rebuilding. He was there for his family, friends neighbors and coworkers,\u201d said Gallagher-Starr. \u201cHe assured us that he was okay and kept right on what he needed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher, 63, was employed with Comme Il Faut S.A. for 14 years and headed its security operations. Prior to that he worked as a bodyguard with the Steele Foundation. The San Francisco-based security firm was hired under a State Department-approved security arrangement to protect Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and manage his presidential protection unit up until Aristide\u2019s ouster on Feb. 29, 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was his choice of careers, to protect others,\u201d Gallagher-Starr said.<\/p>\n
Family members said Gallagher had spent most his working out of the public view, only to have his violent death suddenly thrust him into the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would never have participated in anything that undermined the people that he had sworn to protect, and he spent his entire adult life working in jobs that allowed him to protect other people,\u201d his sister said.<\/p>\n
Before his job with the Steele Foundation, Gallagher worked as a bouncer at a local bar. \u201cHe was my big brother, and I always knew that if anything really bad ever happened that I could call him, and he would be there,\u201d Gallagher-Starr said, recalling how when her daughter they would discuss him coming to their rescue. \u201cHe would have come from anywhere in the world to help his family if we ever needed the skills that he had. And now the world feels like a less secure place without humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher didn\u2019t just work in Haiti, he built a life there and loved the country, friends said. In a conversation with his father last year about the country\u2019s worsening security situation, he sought to assure him that he was safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m working in an office, in a building in a compound,\u201d Gallagher-Starr recalled.<\/p>\n
Learning that her brother\u2019s death came inside a building in which he felt safe makes it even harder to accept, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo find out that this violence against him came from within that place he felt safe in is such a betrayal,\u201d she said. \u201cI am so angry for him and disappointed on his behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n