ORLANDO, Fla.—Law enforcement officers made good on promises to go after people they think aided a fugitive in the weeks before he became the focus of a manhunt in the fatal shooting of an Orlando police sergeant, arresting three people they say helped him after the killing of his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Markeith Loyd’s niece, Lakensha Smith-Loyd, was arrested on an accessory charge Wednesday. Later the same day, authorities arrested an ex-girlfriend of Loyd’s: Jameis Slaughter, who also faces a charge of accessory, according to online jail records.
And a day earlier, Zarghee Mayan, the fugitive’s supervisor at a fried chicken restaurant, was arrested on the same charge.
A manhunt for Loyd after Monday’s fatal shooting of Master Sgt. Debra Clayton entered its fourth day Thursday as authorities promised to reward anyone who turns him in and punish anyone who helps him hide.
More than 500 tips have come in from the public, which authorities believe may be particularly important, because others may be helping him hide.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina had warned earlier this week that anyone helping Loyd “will be put behind bars and brought to justice as well.”
Mayan’s arrest affidavit said Smith-Loyd collected money from him to give to her uncle in the days after the slaying of his ex-girlfriend in mid-December.
Smith-Loyd’s affidavit says she contacted deputies after the ex-girlfriend’s death and promised to help them find her uncle if they first told her whether a firearm had been recovered from the scene of the slaying. Then she stopped cooperating even as she contacted others on her uncle’s behalf, the affidavit said.
