A journalist. An army sergeant. An 80-year-old patient. Haitian human rights group details gang toll WPXI [Video]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — (AP) — A photographer slain in a drive-by shooting. An 80-year-old patient executed in a hospital surgery room. A couple decapitated as they closed their small store for the day.

A new report released by a Haitian human rights group details the horrific violence unleashed this year by gangs who kill, rape and maim with impunity amid a political vacuum.

“This year it’s much worse, and it’s all about the gangs. They have much more power, and they occupy more space,” Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, said Thursday.

The group seeks to hold those responsible accountable, and it relies on people on the ground to collect victims’ names, ages and occupations to ensure they don’t remain anonymous amid a surge in slayings. The killings are difficult to track and are not reported by an underfunded and under resourced police …