TULSA, Okla. — A tragedy in the mission field. a gang in Haiti killed 2 Oklahoma missionaries. Davy and Natalie Lloyd were serving in the country for nearly 2 years when they were killed Thursday, May 23.
David and Alicia Lloyd started Missions in Haiti in 2000 to help children in poverty. children.
“He told us from the time he was really little he was like someday I’m going to be a missionary here,” said Alicia Lloyd.
Sitting in their Claremore home, David and Alicia Lloyd say after decades in the Haitian mission field, they never though they’d lose their son in this way.
“I just don’t know how it ended up the way it did,” said David Lloyd.
Posts on the Missions In Haiti Facebook page logged the unrest and violence in the area.
On May 23 they posted:
Urgent prayer needed. Sam and I came to the states yesterday since the airport opened back up. This evening when Davy, Natalie and the kids were coming out of Youth at the church they were ambushed by a gang of 3 trucks full of guys. Davy was taken to the house tied up and beat. The gang then took our trucks and loaded everything up they wanted and left. Another gang came after to see what was going on and if they could help, so they say. No one understood what they were doing, not sure what took place but one was shot and killed and now this gang went into full attack mode. Davy, Natalie and Jude was in my house at the end of the property using the star link internet to call me. So they are holed up in there, the gangs has shot all the windows out of the house and continue to shoot. Their lives are in danger. I have been trying all my contacts to get a police armored car there to evacuate them out to safety but can't get anyone to do. I also am trying to negotiate with the gang so how much $ to stand down and let them leave and get to safety. PLEASE PRAY- Going to be a long night. The phones have all died I can't get a hold of anybody for the past several hours now to know what was going on.
Three hours later they posted gangs shot and killed Davy, Natalie and Jude.
On May 23, David said a gang came to their non-profit “Missions Haiti,” beat up his son Davy, and looted the place. The 23-year-old had just a minute to get on the phone with his dad before an interruption that ended up taking his life.
“There was a huge commotion at the gate so he goes, ‘Dad I gotta go there’s something else going down,’” said David Lloyd.
David said a second gang showed up and while he doesn’t know exactly what happened, one of their men was shot and killed. That’s when Davy, his 21-year-old wife Natalie and their Director Jude ended up barricaded in their home.
“They shot that home up trying to get to him and finally they ended up busting the door down and went in and shot him then set the place on fire,” said Lloyd.
It’s an unthinkable tragedy for the Lloyd family who’s dedicated the last 26 years to Haitian missions work. Davy grew up in the country and had a heart for the people there.
“There are just no words,’ said Alicia Lloyd. “It’s absolutely devastating. I just never expected the way that my son loved and cared for the Haitian people that they in return would do something like this to him.”
The Lloyd’s said recently the gang problem has gotten much worse.
“This gang situation that we’ve been fighting for the last 5 years, it’s just broken the people and they feel completely hopeless right now,” said Lloyd. “That’s probably the way I can say I feel right now because I’ve been in shock.”
It’s been just shy of two years since Davy and Natalie started serving in Haiti. Just after they got married they went to the mission fiend serving in the non-profit’s school and bakery. The Lloyd’s said they haven’t even started to process this tragedy and it’ll take months, maybe years, to wrap their heads around what happened.
David has been working all day to get their bodies back to the states so they can bury them.
There is widespread civil unrest in Haiti. In the group's newsletter for Jan- March 2024 they wrote:
The humanitarian crises in Haiti continues to worsen. The UN reported that during January an average of 26 people were killed every day here in Haiti and many more were injured or kidnapped. Assaults on women and young girls were rampant. Gang members with guns are currently running Haiti and doing unimaginable evil whenever and wherever they choose.
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