A married American missionary couple and another staff member from an Oklahoma-based Christian group were shot dead by gang members in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday, May 23, in a brutal attack that has intensified calls for international intervention to stem the country’s escalating violence.
The victims were 23-year-old Davy Lloyd, his 21-year-old wife Natalie Lloyd, and 45-year-old Haitian national Jude Montis. All three worked for the organisation Missions in Haiti, which has operated in the impoverished Caribbean nation for over two decades focussing on helping children.
According to the group’s founders, David and Alicia Lloyd, the three were ambushed by heavily armed gang members as they left a church service in Port-au-Prince around 6pm on Thursday. They took shelter in a house on the mission’s compound but came under attack from multiple armed gangs.
In a series of frantic calls to his father, Davy Lloyd said the group’s compound had been overrun by “three pickup trucks full of guys with guns” who had beaten him and were looting the premises. His wife Natalie was the daughter of Missouri state Representative Ben Baker, who confirmed the couple’s death “serving in Haiti” in a heartbroken social media post.
“My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’ve never felt this kind of pain,” Rep. Baker wrote, saying the couple had “went to Heaven together.”
Mrs Lloyd’s father said the couple had chosen to remain in Haiti despite the deteriorating security situation as they did not want to abandon the children in their care at the mission. “They put themselves above others,” he told US media.
After several hours trapped in the house under heavy fire, all three missionaries were killed in a hail of gunfire from the gangs and their bodies set alight, according to accounts from Missions in Haiti and the media. The charity said attempts to negotiate with the gang or secure help from authorities were unsuccessful.
Disturbing details emerged of how the gangs had beaten Davy Lloyd before tying him up and attempting to loot the compound as children from the mission’s orphanage looked on. When a second armed gang then arrived, fierce shooting broke out.
In a final call to his father, Davy said: “I have to go down, something else is going down. I gotta go see what it is.” Those were his last words before the three missionaries were slaughtered.
The killings have drawn forceful condemnation from US officials and reignited urgent calls for a multi-national military force to be swiftly deployed to Haiti to combat the soaring levels of gang violence slowly strangling the nation.
A White House spokesperson said: “The security situation in Haiti cannot wait – too many innocent lives are being lost.” The US supports the “expedited deployment” of a UN-approved mission led by Kenyan forces to bolster local police, they added.
Kenyan President William Ruto, whose country is due to lead the multinational force, told the BBC the deadly attack on the American missionaries “is the reason why we made this decision” to intervene.
Haiti has seen a catastrophic descent into lawlessness and gang warfare in recent months, with heavily-armed criminal groups battling for control of territory across the capital and blocking access to basic supplies and services.
The chaos followed the brazen assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which left a power vacuum that has been ruthlessly exploited by the gangs and forced the resignation of the interim prime minister in March.
According to the United Nations, the first three months of 2024 were the deadliest for Haiti yet, with around 2,500 people killed or injured by escalating gang violence and clashes. Basic services like healthcare and food distribution are now on the verge of total collapse in the capital.
While some areas of Port-au-Prince had previously been relatively unaffected by the anarchy, the brutal killing of the three US missionaries lays bare how no corner is truly safe from the armed groups that have tightened their chokehold on Haiti in recent months.
Alicia Lloyd, who founded Missions in Haiti with her husband in 2000, said her son Davy had grown up in the country and felt a calling to serve and help its people despite the known dangers. “He died doing what he loved…he just wanted to make a difference,” she said.