An American missionary couple was shot to death by members of a criminal gang in Haiti's capital after being kidnapped while leaving a youth group activity held at a local church, according to a police official and a religious group.
A third person also died during the Thursday afternoon attack in the community of Lizon, north of Port-au-Prince, Lionel Lazarre, head of a Haitian police union, told the Associated Press on Friday.
The killings occurred as the capital crumbles under the relentless assault of violent gangs who control 80% of Port-au-Prince, while authorities await the arrival of a Kenyan police force as part of a UN-backed deployment aimed at quelling the violence. of gangs in the troubled Caribbean country.
Two of the victims were a young couple, Davy and Natalie Lloyd, according to a Facebook post by Natalie Lloyd's father, Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker. The name of the third person killed was not immediately available.
“I have never felt this kind of pain,” Baker wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “Most of you know that my daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd are full-time missionaries in Haiti. “Tonight they were attacked by gangs and both were murdered.”
The couple worked for Missions in Haiti Inc. The Claremore, Oklahoma, organization was founded by David and Alicia Lloyd, Davy Lloyd's parents. Natalie Lloyd's Facebook page said the couple married on June 18, 2022, and she began working with the mission organization in August. She frequently posted photos of Haitian children on her page.
The mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He runs a school in Lizon for more than 240 students that opened in September 2008, according to his website.
A Facebook post on the Missions for Haiti page Thursday night stated that Davy and Natalie, along with the children, were leaving a church when they “were ambushed by a gang of three truckloads of kids.” He said they took Davy Lloyd to a house and beat him. Davy, Natalie and a third person, listed only as Jude, were in the house when the shooting began, one post said: The gang members “shot out all the windows in the house and are continuing to shoot. “Their lives are in danger.”
Three hours later, a mission post said: “Davy, Natalie and Jude were shot dead by the gang at around 9 o'clock this afternoon. “We are all devastated.”
Gangs attacked police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that was closed for nearly three months before opening earlier this week, and raided Haiti's two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates. Gangs are also blamed for killing or wounding more than 2,500 people across Haiti from January to March, a 50% increase compared to the same period last year, according to the United Nations.
Kidnappings are also rampant, and their targets include American missionaries.
In October 2021, gang members kidnapped 17 missionaries, most of them American citizens. Many members of the group, including five children, were held captive for more than two months before escaping.
Then, in July 2023, gangs kidnapped an American nurse and her daughter on the campus of a Christian school near Port-au-Prince. They were released almost two weeks later.
The US State Department has long issued a “do not travel” advisory for Haiti and urges all US citizens in the country to depart as soon as possible.
On the Missions for Haiti website, the founders wrote that the organization was founded in 2000. It said its goal was to help with “the country's greatest need: its children.”
“Although the entire nation is mired in poverty, children suffer the most. Thousands of people are malnourished, uneducated and headed for a hopeless life apart from Christ,” the website says.
A May 2023 newsletter posted on the mission's website said Natalie “has been helping with the children at House of Compassion and helping at our ACE school. Davy has been working on many much-needed projects at our community,” including building a laundry room and repairing bathrooms.
Associated Press journalist Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Sanon from Port-au-Prince. AP writer Jim Salter in O'Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.
