He almost got his wish. Suspected cop killer Markeith Loyd was arrested today in connection with the shooting and killing of Orlando police officer, Master Sgt. Debra Clayton on January 9 and his former girlfriend Sade Dixon on December 13. If he’d gotten out of the state, he just might have realized his number one goal in life– to make it to America’s Most Wanted.
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Loyd was visibly bruised when removed from a police squad car and escorted into the jail. He repeatedly told reporters: “They beat me up.” Police said they tracked Loyd to an abandoned home in the Carver Shores neighborhood of Orlando. He was dressed in body armor and carrying two handguns. Authorities say he tried to flee out a back door and then tried the front. Orlando Police Chief John Mina says Loyd resisted arrest and was injured when police used force to apprehend him.
Loyd has been on the run over a month– since the murder of Sade Dixon. He was allegedly approached by Master Sergeant Debra Clayton after she was alerted to his presence in an area Walmart. According to witnesses, A round fired by Clayton reportedly struck Loyd in the chest, but he was wearing body armor at the time.
An initial reward of $60,000 was raised within days to $100,000 in hopes that someone would turn him in. Three people were arrested for conspiring to help him evade police. But in the end, it was not tips from the public that led police to where Loyd was hiding, but “good old fashioned police work.”
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said the public can now breathe a sigh of relief with the arrest of this “madman.”
