Mississippi Man Kills 1-Year-Old Daughter, Himself After Leading Police On 30-Mile Chase, Cops Say
Lavonta Lloyd tried three times this week to kidnap his daughter Kamaya, authorities say.
A Mississippi man kidnapped his 1-year-old daughter and led police on a car chase across three counties before killing her and then himself Thursday, authorities say.
Lavonta Lloyd, 23, had tried three times this week to kidnap his daughter, Kamaya Lloyd, from the girl's mother, according to the Associated Press.
Kimberly Outlaw, the mother, had filed a domestic violence petition against Lloyd but a judge hadn't heard the case before Thursday's murder-suicide, Holmes County Sheriff Willie March told the AP.
Police received a call Thursday from Outlaw's mother that Lloyd was holding Outlaw at gunpoint in her home in the town of Cruger. By the time the police arrived, he had fled with the baby after firing several shots, police said. No one was hurt by the gunfire.
Police chased Lloyd for 30 miles across three counties in Northwestern Mississippi until his car veered off the road and into a ditch, according to the AP.
When the police approached the car, Lloyd and his daughter were both dead, March said.
"They feel both were shot," the sheriff told Mississippi News Now in Jackson. "He shot his daughter earlier and shot himself later on when they thought he was stopping."
Lloyd's first attempt to take his daughter was from the baby’s day care center on Monday. He later returned Kamaya to her mother. Police were called on Tuesday after Lloyd appeared at Outlaw's home. Police chased him off the property but lost him after they were called away to deal with a local prison escape, the AP reported.
Lloyd apparently had visitation rights, but family members had become increasingly concerned about his erratic behavior, according to Mississippi News Now.
"Makes you wish you could have done more but we're all human beings, too," March told Mississippi News Now. "I think we did all we could do to try to get him arrested, try to catch him running from us. Hard to say what else we could have done."
[Photo: Lavonta Lloyd’s Facebook]