The wife of the slain Haitian president said she survived the attack because the assassins thought they'd killed her already

• Martine Moïse was with her husband, Haiti's president, when he was assassinated on July 7.
• She told The New York Times she lay still in front of the killers until they left.
• "When they left, they thought I was dead," she said.

The wife of Haiti's assassinated president said she managed to live because she lay still on the floor during the attack and the hitmen thought they had killed her.

Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home on July 7. His wife, Martine Moïse, was shot in the arm; she was in critical condition after the attack.

In an interview with The New York Times published on Friday, she said that as the killers left, one shined a flashlight in her eyes, apparently checking whether she was still alive.

"When they left, they thought I was dead," she said.

She said the killers shot her husband dead beside her in their bedroom. "The only thing that I saw before they killed him were their boots," she said. "Then I closed my eyes, and I didn't see anything else."

She said that when the gunfire started, she woke up her two children and told them to hide in a bathroom. The children survived the attack.

Haiti has detained several Colombians, Haitians, and Haitian Americans. The Times noted that critics had pointed out that the assassins would have needed to be financed.