Three missionaries, including an American couple, killed by gang in Haiti

CNN
—

Three missionaries, including a married couple from the USA, were killed on Thursday evening in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.

Davy and Natalie Lloyd “were attacked by gangs tonight and both killed,” Natalie Lloyd’s father, Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker, said in a Facebook post. “They went to heaven together.”

Mission director Jude Montis, 45, was also killed. All three worked for Missions in Haiti, Inc., which has been run by Davy Lloyd’s parents for more than two decades, the group’s website says.

Davy Lloyd, 23, had a “love for Haiti,” his father David Lloyd told CNN. “His first language was Creole. When he was little, he always told us that one day he would be a missionary in Haiti.”

He and 21-year-old Natalie Lloyd were attacked as they left church in Port-au-Prince on Thursday evening, David Lloyd said.

“Davy was brought into the house, tied up and beaten. Then the gang took our trucks, loaded everything they wanted and left,” said a post on Missions in Haiti’s Facebook page.

Three hours later, the organization posted that the three missionaries “were shot by the gang around 9pm tonight. We are all devastated.”

“Please pray for my family, we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family too,” Baker said on social media early Friday. “I’m at a loss for words right now.”

The local emergency service, Haitian Emergency Response Operations (HERO), helped coordinate and lead the operation to recover the bodies and transport the remains of the American couple to a hospital morgue.

David Lloyd told CNN he was on the phone with his son during the attacks.

The mission and the church across the street have two security guards, but when the 23-year-old came out of the church around 6 p.m., “they were immediately overwhelmed by three pickup trucks full of armed men,” he said.

The gunmen dragged Davy Lloyd to the house, tied him up and began ransacking the premises, according to his father, who said children from the orphanage were there at the time.

After the gang disappeared with their loot, Davy Lloyd called his father.

“He was hurt, he was wounded. He was nervous and very scared,” David Lloyd said. “He was begging me to find someone to come in and help him and I did everything I could but I couldn’t find anyone.”

Then more armed men arrived, he said.

“He told me, ‘I have to go down there, there’s something going on. I have to see what it is,'” recalled David Lloyd. “That was basically our last call.”

Around that time, someone shot one of the newly arrived gang members, which triggered violent reactions, he said.

“Davy went in and barricaded himself with his wife and (mission leader) Jude Montis in my private house. The gang shot wildly in the house until they broke down the door and shot and set Davy and Jude on fire.”

The first responder group HERO, an ambulance service in Port-au-Prince, confirmed to CNN that Davy Lloyd’s body was found burned at the scene.

Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson mourned the loss of the couple on Friday morning, calling it “absolutely heartbreaking news.”

In a statement on Friday, the Haitian National Police said the killings were being investigated. “Our condolences go out to the victims and their families. As always, we will continue our mission and track down the perpetrators. We are currently operating in several gang-controlled areas of the country to try to liberate these areas. We will provide more information on the incident in due course.”

The White House said in a statement to CNN on Friday that it was aware of the reports and expressed its condolences, while urging the rapid deployment of a UN Security Council-approved international police force to the region.

“We are aware of reports of deaths of U.S. citizens in Haiti. Our condolences go out to the families of those killed, who are experiencing unimaginable grief,” a national security spokesperson told CNN.

“The security situation in Haiti cannot wait. That is why President Biden yesterday reaffirmed our commitment to support the expedited deployment of the Multinational Security Assistance Mission (MSS) to strengthen the capabilities of the Haitian National Police, protect civilians, restore the rule of law, and pave the way to democratic governance.”

So far, people in the area around the mission complex in Haiti have felt largely safe despite the violence in the rest of the city, says David Lloyd, who left the country earlier this week.

“We didn’t hear any gunshots during all this. Our school was open, the church was operating, the bakery was selling bread every day.”

When flights resumed to Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince last week, Lloyd asked his son and daughter-in-law if they wanted to leave Haiti, but they refused.

“We know that the situation in Haiti is very unstable, we know that it is dangerous,” he said. “But we have had a good relationship with the groups in our area and they have left us alone. But as far as I know, it was an outside group that originally came from about a mile away that started everything.”

He believes that the original gang attack was planned as a robbery and that the gangs were trying to take whatever they could before the UN multinational security assistance mission arrived.

“We have a pretty big mission compound with a lot of stuff. With international forces due to arrive any day, I think the gangs are trying to get whatever they can because they realize their time may be running out,” he said.

In a joint press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday, Biden defended the decision not to send U.S. troops to Haiti, telling reporters that such a decision could “raise all kinds of questions that can easily be misrepresented in light of what we are trying to do and that can be used by those who disagree with us and go against the interests of Haiti and the United States.” At the same time, he pointed to the material support, including equipment and training, that the U.S. has already provided to address the crisis.

Missions in Haiti’s Facebook feed reported on worsening conditions in the country this year. “Gangs are still fighting for more control and chaos,” the organization posted on April 23. “It seems the world has turned its back on Haiti and it will remain completely under gang control.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Donald Judd contributed to this report.