3 US missionaries killed in Haiti gang attack

WASHINGTON

Three Americans were killed during a gang attack in Haiti where they were serving as missionaries, their organization announced Friday.

Missions in Haiti identified the dead as husband and wife David and Natalie Lloyd, and Jude Montis. They were killed when a group of men ambushed them as they were leaving a church, the organization said in a Facebook post.

David Lloyd, the son of the group's founder who shares the same name, was taken to a house and beaten before the gang stole the mission's trucks and ransacked their building before leaving the scene, it added. All of the victims were shot before they were killed.

"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," Missions in Haiti said in a post before it confirmed the deaths of the three individuals.

"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," it added.

Missouri state Representative Ben Baker, whose daughter was Natalie Lloyd, confirmed her death and the death of her husband.

"My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’ve never felt this kind of pain," he wrote in a Facebook post. "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."

Missions in Haiti's earlier Facebook posts paint a picture of increasing chaos in the Caribbean nation, including looting and destruction of property, ahead of the deployment of Kenya's planned security force.