Missions in Haiti, an Oklahoma-based charitable organization, said on Friday that three of its Christian missionaries were shot and killed during an ambush by a gang in Haiti.
The victims were seeking refuge in a house after leaving a church when gang members opened fire on them at 9 p.m. CDT Thursday, according to two Facebook posts published by the organization.
Early on Friday morning, a Missouri State legislator said that his daughter and son-in-law were among those who had been slain by gang violence in the Caribbean nation devastated by civil warfare.
“My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’ve never felt this kind of pain,” GOP state Representative Ben Baker wrote on Facebook. “Most of you know my daughter and son-in-law Davy Lloyd (23) and Natalie Lloyd (21) are full time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs this evening and were both killed. They went to Heaven together. Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. I have no other words for now.”
According to Missions in Haiti, “Davy was taken to the house tied up and beaten.” “The gang then took our trucks and loaded everything up they wanted and left,” the statement reads.
Powerful criminal gangs have been controlling Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, since February, leaving thousands of people injured, killed, or forced to leave as a result of the takeover.
This week William Ruto, the president of Kenya, paid President Joe Biden a three-day visit at the White House, in which the two leaders discussed Kenya’s commitment to send troops to Haiti in the midst of this crisis. In the next several days, over 1,000 Kenyan policemen will be sent to Haiti to assist in bringing order to the mayhem, in addition to reinforcements from several other nations.
