Martin Lajoie (died 1986) was a Haitian-American criminal who was the leader of the Haitian gang in Little Haiti, Miami in 1986. He was murdered at the funeral of the previous Haitian gang lord by the Cuban gang, starting the Little Havana-Little Haiti violence.
Biography[]
Martin Lajoie was born in Haiti, and he immigrated to the Little Haiti ghetto of Miami, Florida to flee the rule of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. Lajoie became a member of a local Haitian gang, and he became its leader after the previous gang lord was killed in an apparent attack by Umberto Robina's Cuban gang in Little Havana. At the gang lord's funeral at the Romero Funeral Parlor, a Cuban gangster showed up and killed many Haitian gangsters before chasing down Lajoie. Lajoie's car caught fire near a bridge, so he exited and attempted to flee. The Cuban gangster gunned Lajoie down with an M16, killing the gang lord and leading to an all-out war between the two neighborhoods.