Cassandra Jones: 48-Year-Old Mother, Shot Execution-Style In New Orleans
At 9:26 a.m, on Monday, June 27, 2022, Cassandra Jones was leaving her home to go to work, when she was fatally shot. Her ex-boyfriend, JB Brown has been arrested and charged with murder.
Cassandra Jones, 48-year-old New Orleans mother and grandmother, was known for blazing her own trails in life. She worked for a deputy clerk in Orleans Parish, according to media reports.
“She was outgoing, always eager to make her own living, independent. She didn’t depend on anyone to do anything for her. She always tried to get up and go get it for herself,” an old friend of hers told The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
Before moving to New Orleans, Jones, who was originally from Mississippi, was a cheerleader and ran track for Vicksburg High School, the old friend told the newspaper.
To her family, Jones was one of one.
"I think she left a legacy all her own," one family member told WWL-TV in New Orleans. Another family member told the station, "Cassandra was someone who did not need anyone to toot her own horn.
At some point, Jones, 48, met BJ Brown, 32, and the two began to date. But there were signs of abuse throughout their on-again-off-again years-long relationship, according to police and media reports.
At 9:26 a.m, on Monday, June 27, 2022, Jones was leaving her home to go to work, when she was allegedly brutally assaulted by Jones outside her apartment complex. The incident, which took place in a parking lot, was captured on social media and went viral.
In the graphic video, Jones is lying on the ground in obvious pain and a man with an assault rifle walks up to her and shoots her execution-style two times in the back. He then walks away.
Police and court records indicate Jones had called 911 on Brown several times. In 2020, in one report she filed, she listed herself as his fiancée.
According to Nola.com, Jones filed a restraining order against Brown as recently as May 4, 2022 in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. In it, she detailed several incidents of alleged violence, “including punching, choking, kicking, sexual abuse, threats of bodily harm and financial intimidation.”
In one incident, she reportedly wrote that Brown came to her apartment around 3 a.m. The two began to argue.
“I then told Mr. Brown he got to get out my house and go disrespect the next female,” Jones wrote. “Mr. Brown then took off his belt and began swinging it at me.” She wrote that she was struck several times.
In yet another incident, according to Nola.com, Jones wrote that Brown punched her and knocked her teeth out during an altercation about “a female he was messing with, because I find out about it.”
She also wrote that Brown allegedly tried to smother her with a pillow one time.
Despite this, while Jones filed for a temporary restraining order in May, it was never granted because she didn’t follow up in court.
Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, an attorney and legal analyst, told WDSU, "It is the most common type of case in criminal court. Where a victim will recant. Will want to have the system involved, then take it back."
While it seems that Jones didn’t follow through on the restraining order for unknown reasons, what’s clear is that her family wants justice for Jones.
"We couldn't believe of all the things that could possibly happen, even knowing the type of person he was, that he would go this far, to do something so brutal and so cruel to a human who once maybe loved him," the family of Jones told WWL-TV.
Another family member told the TV station. “Ive seen these people on TV saying just that we’re saying right now, is ‘How did we get here.?’ And this is a club that you don’t want to be in.”
First City Court Clerk Austin Badon, Jones' employer said, "This was a classic domestic violence situation."
Rodrigue told WDSU that the suspect’s violent nature evidently tested the justice system’s infrastructure.
"We certainly do not expect a protective order to protect her from a person like this. He had been arrested at least 25 times. On probation at the time he executed her. There were multiple opportunities for him to be incarcerated or receive help. Or serve significant time to stay out of her life," said Rodrigue.
After a manhunt by law enforcement, including an altercation with a police officer, Brown was arrested and is facing murder charges in two states.
