Haiti arrests suspect in May killings of US missionary couple, nonprofit chief

SAN JUAN (AP):

Police in Haiti have arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of a US missionary couple and a Haitian man who headed a nonprofit in an attack by gunmen earlier this year that stunned many in the troubled Caribbean country.

The May 23 killings of missionaries Davy Lloyd and his wife, Natalie Lloyd, and Jude Montis, the country’s director for Missions in Haiti Inc., a Claremore, Oklahoma organisation, was blamed on gangs rampaging across Haiti’s capital and beyond.

The killings took place in the community of Lizon, in northern Port-au-Prince. The city has crumbled under the relentless violence of gangs that control as much as 80 per cent of the Haitian capital.

A video posted on social media late Wednesday by Haiti’s National Police shows a 52-year-old man in handcuffs, accused of being involved in the killings of the Lloyds and Montis.

Arrests in high-profile killings are very rare in Haiti. In the video, the suspect denies any involvement in the killings. It wasn’t immediately clear if the man has been charged and if he has a lawyer.

Police claim the suspect’s phone was used to make calls after the killings, but the man rejected that accusation.

David Lloyd, the father of Davy Lloyd, told The Associated Press over the phone from Oklahoma on Thursday that he wasn’t aware of the circumstances behind the suspect’s arrest.

The young couple – Davy was 23 and Natalie just 21 – was supposed to celebrate their two-year wedding anniversary in June.

“They loved the Haitian people and were dedicated to that country,” Lloyd said of his son and daughter-in law.

Natalie Lloyd was the daughter of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker, who was cautiously optimistic over the news about the arrest and said he hopes that all those “responsible face the consequences”.

“We want justice for what took place,” Baker told the AP.