REWARD FOR SUSPECT IN COP KILLING: $100K
Manhunt continues as hundreds of tips keep coming in
The suspect in the fatal shooting of Orlando police Master Sgt. Debra Clayton remains elusive, even as hundreds of tips have come in and law enforcement from local, state and federal agencies work nonstop to find him.
Officials are hoping a reward of $100,000 — increased from $60,000 on Monday — will be enough of a lure to help them capture Markeith Loyd, a felon who is accused of killing Clayton on Monday outside a Wal-Mart on Princeton Street at John Young Parkway.
“We’ll get him,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Tuesday. “It’s only a matter of time.”
At a news conference with Mina and Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings on Tuesday, Barb Bergin, the executive director of Crimeline, wanted to make one thing clear: If you provide information, you will not be identified, and anonymous callers are
still eligible for the reward.
“Please understand, when we say anonymous, they are truly anonymous,” Bergin said. “We will not identify you. We just need to know where he’s at so that no one else is hurt.”
More than 300 tips have come in since the Monday morning shooting, Bergin said. In a typical month, the crime line usually gets 1,000.
Two tips led law-enforcement officers and SWAT members to south Lake County on Tuesday.
Orange County sheriff ’s deputies and SWAT members conducted a knockand-talk early Tuesday at a residence in the Tradd’s Landing neighborhood on U.S. 27, south of Clermont. The woman at the residence consented to a full search of her property with SWAT. Loyd was not there.
“The neighborhood [was] saturated with undercover officers” for several hours, said Lt. John Herrell, a spokesman for the Sheriff ’s office.
On Tuesday evening, law enforcement searched a house in the Groveland area, just west of Clermont, with that owner’s consent. Again, there was no sign of Loyd.
As the manhunt continued late Tuesday, scores of mourners gathered in a corner of the Pine Hills Wal-Mart parking lot — not far from where Clayton was killed — bringing flowers, lighting candles and vowing to continue a legacy of love and unity that she embodied.
“Debra never forgot where she came from,” said a tearful Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill, Clayton’s friend. “And Debra’s legacy didn’t die. It starts tonight.”
Funerals are being planned for Clayton and Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Norman Lewis, who died in a crash just two hours after Clayton was shot while he was responding to the incident.
The funeral for Lewis, 35, an 11-year-veteran, is at 11 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church of Orlando.
Clayton’s funeral service is at 2 p.m. Saturday at the same church.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for Clayton’s family, police confirmed. By Tuesday evening, the fund had raised more than $20,000.
Authorities have been searching for Loyd, 41, since Dec. 13, when his pregnant ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Sade Dixon, was shot and killed on her doorstep. Loyd also is accused of shooting and injuring Dixon’s brother when he ran to help her.
“There have been times when we just missed him,” Demings said.
In a Facebook Live video posted on Loyd’s page on Nov. 4 — a little more than a month before Dixon was shot and killed — Loyd and Dixon talk about killing cops during a traffic stop.
“Go ahead and kill him, babe, so we can get home faster,” Dixon said.
On Monday, Clayton was in Wal-Mart about 7:15 a.m. when a shopper flagged her down and told her Loyd was in the store.
Clayton, 42, called for backup to the store and then spotted Loyd. She started chasing him and yelled for him to “stop,” but instead, the felon opened fire, Mina said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mina said Clayton did the right thing.
“This whole incident happened within seconds,” Mina said. “I think she’s a hero. She did a phenomenal job. I wouldn’t have done anything differently myself.”
Loyd fled after the shooting, but was soon spotted by an Orange County sheriff’s deputy near Pine Hills Road and North Lane, officials said.
Loyd fired at least once at the deputy, striking his cruiser, and then carjacked a woman and sped away, according to police. He eventually ditched the car at an apartment complex off Cinderlane Parkway in the Rosemont area of Orlando.
That complex, where police focused their search efforts most of Monday, was mostly quiet and empty Tuesday afternoon.
Maintenance crews were seen repairing boarded-up doors and windows that had been damaged by a SWAT team. An armed security guard was thwarting media attempts to get on the property.
One resident, who only wanted to be identified as Mike, sat in the doorway of his first-floor apartment, saying he needed to air it out because police used tear gas after forcing their way inside.
He said he left home Monday shortly after the SWAT team descended on the complex and came back hours later to find his door was one of more than a handful that had been boarded up.
The frame was busted, and Orlando fire crews were called to his unit Tuesday morning after the gas smell made a maintenance man dizzy.
Mike said he never gave police permission to go inside — or break his door — but found a copy of a search warrant inside that mentioned Loyd was seen walking past the door.
“I don’t know where this cat is,” Mike said. “I just want my house fixed back up.”
Detectives also are looking for people who have helped Loyd elude law enforcement and they’re “fairly certain” they’ve identified a few, Demings said.
As the search for Loyd continues, Mina said that if anyone sees a large police presence, they should avoid it. He would not say what areas officers are focusing on or if investigators think Loyd is still in Central Florida.
“We want the community to know it’s safe to go about their day-to-day activities,” Mina said at the news conference. Ryan Gillespie, David Harris, Jason Ruiter and Kate Santich contributed to this report. sallen@orlando sentinel.com or 407-420-5417
“This whole incident happened within seconds. I think she’s [Debra Clayton] a hero. She did a phenomenal job. I wouldn’t have done anything differently myself.” Orlando Police Chief John Mina