UPDATE: Suspect in Fatal Shooting of Officer Captured
[UPDATE: January 18, 2017 9:00 a.m.]
After more than a month on the run, a man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an Orlando police officer has been captured, according to Police Chief John Mina.
An investigation led authorities to an abandoned house in Orlando's Carver Shores area, where Markeith Loyd was arrested.
Loyd was dressed in body armor and carrying two guns when police arrived. He tried to flee out a back door and then the front. Mina says he resisted arrest and was injured when police used force.
Mina told reporters at a news conference that they used Lt. Debra Clayton's handcuffs on Loyd when he was arrested.
""To put her handcuffs on the bad guy that she was trying to catch when she was killed ... it's meaningful," Mina said. "It's something that we wanted to do for the family and for the law enforcement community."
Original story posted below.
Orlando Police are searching for a suspect who shot and killed an officer this morning as well as his girlfriend in December.
In the early hours of Monday, January 9, Orlando Police officer Deborah Clayton received a call that there was a suspicious person at a Walmart she was currently shopping at. As she tried to gain contact with the person, he open fired about 6 to 9 shots, killing her.
From there, he stole a vehicle and dumped it on a road not far from the crime scene. Police are currently searching the area to bring in the suspect. 13 area schools are currently on lockdown as police search for the suspect they have deemed “armed and dangerous.”
Police have identified the suspect as Markeith Loyd, a suspect that OPD have been searching for since December when he shot and killed his 24-year-old girlfriend who was pregnant at the time.
In addition to the killing of Sgt. Clayton, an Orange County deputy who was responding to the scene of the crime on a motorcycle was struck by a civilian's minivan in the middle of an intersection. He later succumbed to his injuries.
Chief John Mina reminded citizens of Flordia of the irony that today marks "Officer Appreciation Day."