Father kidnaps, kills infant daughter, himself, Mississippi sheriff says

Harold Gater | Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Show Caption Hide Caption #BehindTheScenesJPD Ep. 7: Just tell them what's in your pants A driver was pulled over with a decent-sized bag of weed and tried to hide it from police.

Authorities say a father kidnapped his infant daughter Thursday morning in north Mississippi, then shot himself and the girl as law enforcement closed in.

Their bodies were found along a Delta roadside inside the pickup 23-year-old Lavonta Lloyd had been driving. The girl was about a year old.

Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said the child's mother had previously filed a restraining order against Lloyd. He also told the Associated Press that Thursday marked the third day this week that Lloyd sought to take Kamaya Lloyd from her mother, Kimberly Outlaw.

“It’s a terrible situation,” March said.

March said Lloyd first took his daughter Kamaya from a day care on Monday, but Kamaya was returned to her mother later that evening. Then, on Tuesday, deputies were called when Lloyd resurfaced at the mother’s home in the 400-person town of Cruger, about 70 miles north of Jackson, the AP reported. Deputies chased Lloyd down some railroad tracks but lost his trail after he escaped into a cornfield. March said deputies were called off the search because someone escaped from the county’s jail.

Charlie Luckett of the Holmes County Chancery Clerk’s office said Outlaw attempted to get a permanent domestic violence protective order against Lloyd at Holmes County Justice Court Monday.

Luckett said she called a law clerk to schedule a hearing but, due to the July Fourth holiday Wednesday, the case wasn't heard before Lloyd's death Thursday.

March said, according to the child's grandmother, the father kidnapped the child from her mother at gunpoint from her home.

March said his office received a call around 6:30 a.m. from the child's grandmother who, while at work, had been alerted by the child's grandfather of the situation.

March said deputies were en route to the home when a second call came in saying that Lloyd was headed north on U.S. 49 into Leflore County driving a white truck with a water tank in the truck bed.

Lloyd fled Cruger before deputies arrived, March said, but after he reportedly fired shots. No one was injured.

March said Lloyd was chased across Leflore County and into Sunflower County before his truck ran into a ditch near Moorhead. March says that’s when the man shot and killed the girl and himself.

Deputies could not see inside the vehicle due to its tinted windows, March said, and a shield was brought to the scene to protect deputies as they broke the windows to the truck, where they discovered the bodies.

“The baby was on top of him and had been shot,” Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks, whose deputies also took part in the chase, told The Greenwood Commonwealth.

The investigation is ongoing, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is assisting.

Regarding the protective order, Mississippi requires the hearing be held within 10 calendar days from the date the petition is filed. Justice courts and municipal courts in Mississippi can issue both temporary and emergency protective orders. Since Outlaw was seeking a permanent order, she was referred to the chancery court.

The AP reported that police records show Lloyd was arrested twice in Jackson on domestic violence charges in 2016 and 2017, but a preliminary search of court records there turned up no convictions.

Clarion Ledger reporter Sarah Fowler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the timeframe in which a permanent protective order hearing must be held. That information has been corrected.