Weeks before she was shot dead in a downtown New Orleans parking lot, Cassandra Jones filed for a restraining order against BJ Brown.
The restraining order alleges that BJ Brown punched, choked, shoved, kicked, threatened, intimidated, and sexually abused her, along with mental, emotional, and financial abuse.
It details an early morning incident on April 27 around 3:30 a.m. when Brown allegedly came over and they began to fight.
Cassandra Jones said she told him to get out, and he hit her with a belt several times, bruising her. 911 was called, and Jones said Brown punched her and threw her to the ground, stomping on her.
Once police arrived, she said Brown jumped off her upstairs balcony to escape.
After the officers left, she said he got back into her apartment where they continued to fight, and he tried to smother her with a pillow.
She also alleged there was another occasion where she confronted him about cheating on her, and he punched her, knocking her teeth out.
How Cassandra Jones was murdered
The First City Clerk of Court, Austin Badon, said Cassandra Jones was leaving her house, headed for work, and that’s when suspect Brown shot her just before 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Cell phone video of her execution-style killing was widely shared on social media.
In the harrowing video, a man believed to be Brown walks over to Jones after she’s shot and nearly dead in the apartment parking lot and fires two more rounds into her body.
“Walked down the street with a gun, a long gun, without any fear of repercussions and shoots someone for whatever reason in broad daylight,” Badon said. “Seemingly, this individual walked away and came back and finished her off.”
Brown has a lengthy criminal history, spanning more than a decade across several parishes. Most of the charges come from St. John the Baptist, where he had been arrested more than 10 times over the past 10 years.
He’s been arrested at least twice for domestic abuse battery. Court records show Jones as the victim of at least one of these incidents. Both times the charges were dropped by the victim.
Some of the other common charges were simple robbery, battery and assault, along with resisting an officer and flight from an officer. There’s even one charge of injuring or killing a police animal.
All of this, along with various drug charges.
Many times, he appears to have been arrested with outstanding warrants.