A 1-year-old girl is dead at the hands of her father, who after fatally wounding the baby turned the gun on himself, according to law enforcement officials from Holmes and Leflore counties.
Lavonta Lloyd, 23, of Canton and Kamaya Lloyd, 1, of Cruger were both dead when Leflore County deputies found them in Lloyd’s ditched vehicle, east of Moorhead on U.S. 82, shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday.
According to Holmes County Sheriff Willie March, Lloyd hid out in the Cruger home of Kimberly Outlaw, Kamaya’s mother, held Outlaw at gunpoint, then took off with the baby in a white pickup truck at around 6:25 Thursday morning. March said shots were reported to have been fired before his officers arrived.
March alerted the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department, saying Lloyd was headed their way. “They told us what they were after, a white truck with a water tank on the back, and said the driver of the vehicle had refused to stop, had kidnapped a baby and was threatening to kill the baby and then kill himself,” Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said.
Banks said six vehicles from the his agency pursued Lloyd through the county, up Mississippi 7 into Itta Bena, then onto U.S. 82 heading west toward Moorhead.
Just before the truck got to the red light at Moorhead, according to Banks, “the pickup went across the eastbound lane and went into a deep ditch, so you couldn’t see the top of the truck anymore.”
That was reportedly at 7:08 a.m. Banks said no one at the scene heard gunshots after the truck left the road.
Lloyd, who was arrested on domestic violence charges in Jackson in 2016 and again in 2017, had been in the Cruger area the week before the kidnapping and was reported at least twice to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.
March said Lloyd took Kamaya from her day care center in Tchula on Monday, unauthorized, and returned her to Outlaw’s home in Cruger later that evening.
March said Outlaw filed on Monday a domestic violence petition against Lloyd in Holmes County Chancery Court. A judge didn’t hear the case before Lloyd’s death. March said he didn’t know if Lloyd knew Outlaw was pursuing legal action.
March said Outlaw told him a restraining order on Lloyd was in effect in another Mississippi county, but that information could not be confirmed.
On Wednesday, Lloyd showed up at Outlaw’s house and Holmes County deputies reportedly chased him down the railroad tracks and into a corn field. Lloyd escaped when the deputies were called away to assist with an escape from the Holmes County Jail.
Banks said that law enforcement officers from three counties converged at the site where Lloyd ran off the road near Moorhead and conferred for 20 to 30 minutes before approaching the truck.
“We didn’t know if he was still in the truck with a gun. It was so deep in the weeds, you couldn’t see, you couldn’t tell,” he said.
Banks said he made a decision to ease up to the truck to assess the scene, and deputies carrying a protective shield busted out the driver-side window.
“The baby was on top of him and had been shot,” Banks said. Lloyd had apparently also shot himself.
Banks said he didn’t know at what point Lloyd killed the baby and said unsubstantiated rumors were circulating saying Lloyd shot the child and put it on Facebook before turning the gun on himself.
March said Kimberly Outlaw and her mother were at the scene when the bodies were discovered.
“I informed them that the baby had been shot,” March said.
The Sunflower County coroner’s assistant on Thursday said the coroner would not be releasing any information to the media until investigations into both deaths were completed.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
