Haitians Storm Police Posts, Give Seized Arms to Americans : Caribbean: Cedras accuses U.S. of atrocities in altercation that killed 10 officers. Cap Haitien security force goes into hiding, and some citizens slip away with guns.

CAP HAITIEN, Haiti —  Thousands of screaming Haitians, encouraged by a U.S. Marine gun battle that killed 10 policemen, stormed the three main police facilities here Sunday, looted the buildings and turned armfuls of weapons over to the American troops.

The dramatic turn of events in Haiti’s second-largest city, coming after almost a week of relative calm in this Caribbean nation, marked the first time in the U.S. intervention that American troops sent to keep the peace have used their guns to maintain order.

It sent the rest of the Cap Haitien police force and its leaders into hiding, broke civilian police control in the city and signaled to Haitian officials in the capital, Port-au-Prince, that U.S. troops will not tolerate armed provocations by police.

Col. Tom Jones, head of the Marine force in northern Haiti, praised the lieutenant of a 30-man platoon who gave the order to fire at the police headquarters when he saw a policeman waving an Uzi submachine gun at a large crowd Saturday night.

“My lieutenant fired first,” Jones said, “and I know what he did was right.”

Jones also described a searing meeting Sunday morning with Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the Haitian military leader who flew here from Port-au-Prince to discuss the gunfight.

“Cedras accused us of atrocities and then personally asked for my removal and court-martial,” Jones said. “I’m happy to report that he didn’t get either.”

Even as Jones spoke, unusually large crowds were continuing to march and sing in the streets of Cap Haitien. They thanked American troops and vowed to see Jean-Bertrand Aristide restored as president.

In Washington, Clinton Administration officials said the outbreak of shooting and civil disorder were the kind of trouble they had anticipated, and urged that more time be allowed for U.S. forces to establish order.

But Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said a resolution will be introduced in the Senate this week to set a date, probably several months from now, for an end to the current, unilateral U.S. phase of the mission.

And Aristide, in exile in Washington, called a special session of Haiti’s Parliament for Wednesday to study a draft law to grant amnesty to military leaders who ousted him three years ago. Last weekend’s Haiti agreement, which allowed a peaceful entry by U.S. troops, provided for the junta leaders to give up power by Oct. 15 or when an amnesty is adopted, whichever comes first.

To many watching the events unfold, the daylong public demonstrations were less in support of Aristide than they were a rebuke of the three-year reign of Cedras and the feared Haitian police.

With the blood of the 10 slain Haitians--all identified by the Marines as policemen--still running down 20th Street in front of the yellow-and-white police headquarters, the jubilant crowds carried aloft the police firearms and proclaimed that police violence and torture of citizens was over.

“That blood on the ground is nothing to what the people have already spilled,” one man yelled.

Another man, carrying a pistol out of the police headquarters, shouted: “This is what the (police) had inside to kill us.”

And Harold Jean, a young man helping to stack a pile of police rifles, shotguns, handguns, ammunition, cartridge belts and uniforms in the middle of the street, screamed: “These are for the Marines to take! We don’t want them!”

The Marines earlier Sunday removed a five-ton truck loaded with automatic weapons from the police building, and, despite the good intentions of most people in Cap Haitien to give the guns to the Marines, some citizens were seen running down side streets with guns and ammunition.

It is that kind of situation, where citizens are beginning to take up arms, that worried many people here Sunday. Some, particularly upper-class Haitians who have opposed the Marine intervention, believe more bloodshed will come.

Ed Ernest, a U.S.-educated economist who works in the export-import business, spent most of the day with his colleagues in the hills above the city, fearful of coming down lest they become the target of the angry protests.

Ernest said that while he once donated money to Aristide’s presidential campaign, he now believes the priest does not deserve to return to power because he allowed the U.S. military to intervene in Haiti.

“This is just the beginning,” he said of the violence in the city below. “I think it’s going to become more difficult to live here now that more of the people are armed. I foresee the people eventually turning against the Marines too.

“Remember,” he added, “this is Haiti, and most everyone is against another long U.S. occupation.” He was referring to the U.S. occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

Col. Jones, in a briefing Sunday afternoon, described in detail the five-minute gunfight between 30 Marines and a dozen members of the Haitian security forces at the police headquarters in the center of the city. But his version differed from the accounts given by several witnesses.

Jones said the trouble began when a Haitian-born American, identified as Michel Perat, shot a young boy when a crowd of people converged on his store Saturday afternoon. Perat, who has been outspoken in his opposition to Aristide, was quickly arrested by the Marines.

The trouble escalated about 7 p.m. when a crowd estimated at 1,000 people formed in front of the police headquarters.

While most of the officers were inside playing cards and dominoes, an attache , or police auxiliary, out front began to feel threatened.

According to Jones, the attache pulled out an Uzi and began to point it at the people. The Marine lieutenant, Virgil Palumbo, 24, of Windber, Pa., opened fire nearby.

“The lieutenant saw that gesture with the Uzi,” Jones said. “He took that individual out, and then the firefight broke out.”

The Marine platoon, on a routine street patrol next to the headquarters, began firing their M-16 rifles and 9-millimeter automatic weapons, and the police returned fire. Jones said that some in the crowd were also firing at the police.

When the shooting stopped, the bodies of 10 policemen were lying on the street in front of the headquarters.

An 11th police officer was found upstairs, badly wounded, Jones said. Suffering three gunshot wounds and numerous broken bones, he was taken to the helicopter assault ship Wasp anchored offshore, where he underwent eight hours of surgery.

A 12th policeman, who was not injured, was taken into custody but later released, Jones said, so that “he could go tell the police leadership what had happened here.”

In addition, a U.S. Navy interpreter was treated for a bullet wound to his leg. None of the Marines was hit.

“Last night, what happened was absolutely required,” Jones said in defending his Marines. “I back them all the way. The lieutenant did what was right.

“It’s unfortunate that 10 people are dead. But the lieutenant acted prudently, rapidly and deliberately.”

Some citizens told different stories. Some said the Marines lined up in front of the police headquarters earlier in the afternoon, almost in expectation of the violence to come. Others said the police attache actually fired first.

“He started to shoot a couple of times up in the air,” said David St. Hilaire, an unemployed tourist guide. “He was trying to make the people calm down. But the Haitians didn’t care. They were ready to start a war.”

Nonie Mathieu, a notary public who lives across from the police building, said that as soon as the battle was over, the Marines evacuated the immediate area and ordered everyone to spend the night at a religious facility two blocks away.

Meanwhile, she said, the Marines told anyone still alive inside the building to come out in groups of two. “Nobody came out,” she said.

The Marines shot orange flares into the sky to disperse the crowd after the gun battle. Around 1 a.m. Sunday, they entered the prison several blocks away and emptied that facility of weapons. Jones said about five prisoners were freed by the Marines and ran off in their yellow and green uniforms.

But, said Karl Jacques, who lives nearby, “I saw more like a dozen prisoners coming out and I don’t know where they went.”

Sunday morning, as the crowds began to reappear on the streets, tensions again grew. First, the crowds surged into the police barracks, looted the grounds and marched out with the weapons that had been kept inside.

Next they went to the police headquarters. Slipping on the blood still out front, they swarmed into the building, overturned furniture, broke windows and tossed equipment and papers from a second-story balcony. Again, police weapons were piled up outside for the Marines.

The crowds next moved on the prison. There, furniture was destroyed, and papers were strewn about. The people spoke angrily about the tortures and executions they said had occurred over the last several years.

The Haitians pointed to small cinder-block cells used to confine up to 20 prisoners. They pointed to a small cubbyhole where they said prisoners were forced to kneel and then were beaten on the buttocks with iron rods.

Israel LaGuerre, who said he was in prison three times, said the police often executed people inside the compound. “They would take them at night,” he said. “They would tie their hands and put a black hood on them and after they shot them, they would take them out in a truck and throw them away.”

At the Marine camp, Jones deplored the human rights abuses by the police. He estimated that 3,000 people had been killed by the Cap Haitien police and that “10 times that many were beaten and tortured.” But some people said Jones’ estimates were exaggerated.

“The police here are like a vacuum now,” he said. “And they are obviously scared for a very good reason.”

Times staff writer Melissa Healy in Washington contributed to this article.

* A CHANGING SCENE: Port-au-Prince shows seeds of change with troop arrival. A6

* OCCUPATION OPPORTUNITIES: Wealthy Haitians see chance for profit in U.S. occupation. A8

* RELATED STORIES, A6-8