On 17 March 2021, members of the Fantom 509 group — composed of both active and former police officers — engaged in violent protests in the capital Port-au-Prince. The police officers, some wearing their uniforms and masks to conceal their identities, set fire to a foreign car dealership and demanded that the government retrieve the bodies of five police officers currently held by gang members in the Village of God informal settlement. The officers then stormed a police station and freed four of their colleagues held on charges of supporting an attempted coup in February. Following the event, authorities declared a month-long state of emergency in four gang-controlled areas in Port-au-Prince, including the Village of God, but will expand the order to cover any area as deemed necessary by security forces.