(Farmington, MS) The Farmington Police Department potentially broke the law when they did not report an April standoff involving a man who murdered his son before turning the gun on himself six months later.
Eleven-year old Andrew Loyd was with his father during that standoff with police but was never taken out of the single parent’s custody.
The Farmington Police Department is obligated to report any incident that puts a child in harm’s way.
“If we thought somebody was in danger especially a child we would certainly contact DHS,” said Major Scotty Harville with the Corinth Police Department.
Corinth Police say if a stand-off involves weapons and a child, they’re reporting it to the state.
They couldn’t in April because they weren’t part of the stand-off or know about it.
“If we thought the child was in danger, it’s a case by case basis, but certainly we would contact someone,” said Harville.
The law is pretty clear.
It says a law enforcement officer is obligated to notify the state if there’s any reason to believe a child is being mentally or physically abused or neglected.
That way the state can take the child out of a dangerous situation before tragedy strikes.
Family members say after the stand-off Billy Loyd voluntarily went to the Magnolia Regional Health Center for about a week.
During that time Andrew stayed with family members, but when his father was released from the hospital he wanted to go home to be with him, and family members say they thought that was the right thing to do.
“I wish we would have known that he needed the help he did. And he had plenty of people that loved him, and we would have made it better if there was any way possible,” said Andrew’s cousin Josh Burress.
Six months later Billy and Andrew are dead.
The Farmington Police Chief did not return phone calls for comment, and at this point it’s unclear why they didn’t report the incident to the state.
Some people express concerns this is the good ‘ole boy network at it’s finest, and the stand-off was never reported because of Billy’s connection to police.
His brother is a police officer with Corinth PD.
Major Harville says he does not think that factored in, and says his department reports crimes where a child’s life is potentially in danger.
