(Farmington, MS) It’s a crime that shocked the Mid-South.
An 11-year-old boy shot and killed by his own father, who then killed himself.
Just months earlier, Andrew Loyd was in the middle of a stand-off between his father, Billy, and police.
But he was allowed to return home just days later.
“He was always bright and vibrant. He always had fun,” said Andrew’s uncle, Robert Loyd.
Loyd says the 11-year-old dreamed of playing his beloved trumpet in a college band.
Instead, the music stopped for the Alcorn County Middle School student last October.
“He loved life. His life situation just wasn’t good,” said Loyd.
That’s probably an understatement. His situation was dangerous and eventually deadly.
Andrew was stuck in the middle of a standoff between Farmington Police and his father last summer.
Billy eventually surrendered and was taken to a mental health clinic, but when he returned home days later, so did Andrew.
“The laws need to be read to where the law enforcement has to do something. They’ve got to do something. It takes it out of the hands of the family,” said Loyd.
Mississippi law already does.
It says the responding agency, in this case Farmington PD, must turn over any incident of child endangerment to the Department of Human Services.
Chief Anthony Holmes says he never gave DHS the report.
He says he gave it to Andrew’s aunt, who is also Robert’s wife.
Robert Loyd was a police officer with the Farmington Police Department when the standoff and murder happened.
He says he doesn’t think his relationship to the department had anything to do with the fact that the law and procedure weren’t followed.
“There was no special treatment done,” said Chief Anthony Holmes.
As a matter of fact, nothing was done.
Chief Holmes claims DHS turned the couple away saying it doesn’t handle those cases.
“I didn’t follow up with DHS at that time because I actually thought that possibly through their private attorney they were going to try to do it,” said Holmes.
DHS will not comment on what happened with this case.
Robert and his wife wanted Andrew to stay with them after the stand-off, but they had no legal right to take Andrew away from his father since Magnolia Regional Medical Center cleared him and said he was fine.
“I take blame for some of it. Not all of it. We tried, but there’s only so hard you can push if you’re not going to get any help,” said Loyd.
After Andrew went back to his father, Robert’s worst fear became a reality.
“The door was open about an inch and I just knew. I went in and saw them on the bed. Andrew was still breathing, but Billy was gone,” said Loyd, remember the crime scene.
Andrew had been laying there for hours barely holding on to life.
He lived long enough to make it to the hospital where his organs were donated, saving the lives of seven other children.
“We miss him, but to know that other children are doing better. That gives us some hope,” said Loyd.
Thursday on News Channel 3 at 5 we’ll tell you about a possible solution.
After seeing our stories on Andrew, a state lawmaker is taking action to make sure DHS gets involved to prevent this from happening again.