Cops accuse 2 of aiding fugitive before killing of Orlando police officer

Associated Press

ORLANDO, FLA.

Police leading a massive manhunt for the suspected killer of an Orlando officer Wednesday collected hundreds of tips and announced the arrests of two people who purportedly aided the fugitive, promising to reward anyone who turns him in and punish anyone who helps him hide.

Court records show that Markeith Loyd’s niece, 27-year-old Lakensha Smith-Loyd, was arrested on an accessory charge Wednesday, a day after the fugitive’s supervisor at a fried-chicken restaurant, Zarghee Mayan, was arrested on the same charge.

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 murder and promised to help them find her uncle if they first told her whether a firearm had been recovered from the murder scene. She stopped cooperating even as she contacted others on her uncle’s behalf, the affidavit said.

Mayan is accused of supplying restaurant food to his former co-worker, driving him around and offering him money, despite knowing he was wanted in the slaying of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, the affidavit said.

Mayan told authorities his most recent encounter with Loyd was last Saturday, two days before Master Sgt. Debra Clayton was fatally shot in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Mayan said he noticed that Loyd was armed and wearing body armor when they embraced, according to his arrest affidavit.