The families of an American missionary couple who were attacked and killed in Haiti alongside the local director of a Christian mission group Thursday are mourning and remembering the departed.

Jude Montis, the local director of Missions in Haiti Inc., and Davy and Natalie Lloyd, a young married couple from the U.S., were fatally shot in the community of Lizon in northern Port-au-Prince after leaving a youth group activity at church. Natalie was the daughter of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker. 

“Thursday evening May 23rd our family experienced a tragedy that has broken our hearts and left Naomi and I grieving so deeply words cannot really express. My daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd were murdered by gangs in Port Au Prince Haiti,” Baker said in a statement. 

They were killed as Port-au-Prince crumbles under the relentless assault of violent gangs that control 80% of the capital city while authorities await the arrival of a police force from Kenya as part of a U.N.-backed deployment aimed at quelling gang violence in the troubled Caribbean country.

AMERICAN MISSIONARY COUPLE KILLED IN HAITI, AGENCY SAYS

Family members said Davy and Natalie joined Missions In Haiti as full-time missionaries after they were wed in 2022. The group’s website says it’s goal is “to see the Gospel of Christ make a difference in the lives of Haiti’s young people.”

“They loved Haiti and loved its people dearly and ultimately gave everything for them. Davy and Natalie reached countless lives in so many ways and we want them to be remembered for who they were, selfless and full of love and devotion to the people of Haiti,” Baker said. 

Davy Lloyd’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd of Oklahoma, founded the organization in 2000 and directed its missionary towards children. David and Alicia Lloyd are full-time missionaries in Haiti.

“Although the entire nation is steeped in poverty, the children suffer the worst,” the Missions In Haiti website states. “Thousands are malnourished, uneducated, and headed for hopeless lives apart from Christ.”

HAITI’S TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL ADOPTS UNPRECEDENTED LEADERSHIP ROTATION AS COUNTRY FACES DEADLY GANG VIOLENCE

Davy and Natalie Lloyd, American missionaries serving in Haiti, were killed Thursday in a gang attack, said Natalie’s father, Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker.  (Ben Baker via Facebook)

Hannah Cornett, Davy’s sister, told The Associated Press that they grew up in Haiti. Davy Lloyd went to the U.S. to attend a Bible college and married Natalie in June 2022. After the wedding, the couple wasted little time moving to Haiti to do humanitarian work.

Cornett said Montis, a Haitian, had worked at Missions in Haiti for 20 years. He left behind two children, ages 2 and 6. 

The organization provides housing for 36 children, 18 boys and 18 girls, at its House of Compassion, the website said. “All are destined to stay at House of Compassion until they have finished school and are ready to be on their own.”

Missions In Haiti also opened Good Hope Boys’ Home, which provides a home for 22 boys. The organization also built a church, a bakery and a school with more than 240 students, the website said. 

HAITI COUNCIL APPOINTS NEW PRIME MINISTER AS COUNTRY CONTINUES TO FACE DEADLY GANG VIOLENCE

A bus passes by a police officer on patrol near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Missions In Haiti said in a Facebook post that Davy Lloyd, 23, and Natalie Lloyd, 21, along with some children, were leaving a youth group gathering at church when gang members in three trucks ambushed them. 

Davy Lloyd later called his family to tell them that gang members hit him on the head with the barrel of a gun, forced him upstairs, stole their belongings and left him tied up, Cornett told the Associated Press.

Missions In Haiti recounted that “another gang” went to the scene “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,” the group said. 

13 KILLED AS HEAVY RAINS UNLEASH LANDSLIDE IN HAITI

Davy, Natalie and Jude Montis were in the house, communicating what was happening to Missions In Haiti via Starlink satellite internet. As they hid, the gangs began shooting at the house, according to Missions In Haiti.

Missions in Haiti lost contact with the missionaries. Hours later, they posted that Davy, Natalie and Montis were killed in the attack.

Rep. Baker posted on Facebook on Friday that the bodies of Davy and Natalie Lloyd had been recovered and were safely transported to the U.S. Embassy. 

A spokeswoman for the Baker family told Fox News Digital that U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., is heading up efforts to secure an airline willing to transport the bodies back to the U.S. The Lloyd/Baker family has obtained a waiver to transport the bodies back to the U.S. without being fully embalmed because there’s currently no service in Haiti that can do that for them. 

The spokeswoman said it will be Monday at least before the family has the required permits and the death certificates needed to get the bodies through customs.  

A GoFundMe set up by family friends Chris Slinkard and Missouri Republican state Rep. Dirk Deaton has raised over $35,000 as of Saturday morning to assist the Lloyd/Baker family with costs related to bringing Davy and Natalie’s bodies home. 

The Associated press contributed to this report.

Italy has pledged millions of euros to support Palestine, during a meeting of Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa on Saturday in Rome. 

Mustafa is the leader of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. 

Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said Rome would provide new funding of around €35 million for the Palestinian population.

Five million euros will go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the other 30 million will be allocated to the ‘Food for Gaza’ initiative.

Israel previously accused UNRWA of collaborating with Hamas during the October 7 attack. 

However, no evidence to support this claim has been provided, according to aUN report.

At the meeting, Tajani said Italy believes in a two-state solution within the framework of a wider political process leading to peace.

“Unilateral initiatives are not helpful to the solution of the conflict because the main goal is a peace that leads to the creation of a Palestinian State, that recognises Israel and that is recognised,” said Tajani.

First proposed by the UN in 1947, the two-state solution involves creating two separate nations: one for the Jewish people (Israel), and one for Palestinians (Palestine). This would involve dividing the land, with each state having its own government and sovereignty. The goal is to allow both groups to live side by side peacefully and independently.

Italy has already provided two separate aid packages of €20 million to Palestine. 

Palestine Authority PM Mustafa will visit Brussels on Sunday to meet European leaders.

Most Palestinians are critical of the Palestinian Authority, viewing it as a quisling government that has failed to address even the basic needs of its population. 

A recent study from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that nearly 60% of Palestinians want the Palestinian Authority dissolved.