Police in the Big Easy say that a woman from New Orleans waited for a group of women to leave a bar and then followed them in another car, opened fire, and killed one of her targets. She is now in jail.
Records from the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office show that Chante Bertha Mark, 24, is charged with one count of murder in the second degree.
Raven Francis, 29, was killed in the shooting, and several others were hurt. Police say the violence seemed to be payback for a big fight that happened earlier that same night in a bar.
The suspect and the woman who was killed are both moms of four.
During the early morning hours on Sunday, Sept. 1, the New Orleans Police Department responded to a call about a car crash near the corner of Baudin Street and South Solomon Street in the Mid-City neighborhood, according to The Times-Picayune.
Around 2:45 a.m., police and firemen arrived to look at the damage. They saw that the car had flipped over after being shot and then hit a fire hydrant. Four people who had been shot were treated and lived.
Francine was taken to a nearby hospital right away, but she died later that same morning from her injuries. Later, however, there were disagreements about the other deaths. Family members said that most of the survivors were only hurt in the crash.
Mark was caught at a hotel in Chalmette on September 4. Chalmette is a census-designated place just a few miles east of the Ninth Ward and borders St. Bernard’s Parish, according to New Orleans-based NBC affiliate WDSU. Jail records show that the suspect was sent to Orleans Parish the next day.
The Time-Picayune got a copy of court records that show police say Mark got into a fist fight with two big groups of women outside the Shamrock between 1:56 and 2:02 a.m. on the night in question. Police say that surveillance video of the defendant running to the farthest end of the strip mall bar’s parking lot proves his guilt.
Then, in less than a minute, Mark came back with a handgun and attacked someone in the fight, “striking her five times with force” in the head and shoulder, according to a police report.
Witnesses told the police that Mark then left.
The cops say she didn’t go too far, though.
It is said that the suspect then got into a white Nissan Altima and waited for things to calm down. The car stopped idling and started moving “in tandem” with a black SUV that had just arrived, police wrote in the affidavit. The two cars went around the parking lot twice and then stopped somewhere to wait for the victims outside.
Police say that a witness told them that Mark told the drivers of the SUV to come get her. Then, the witness said, she switched to the SUV just before finally following the victims in their own car after the two cars had parked. Then there were several shots, just two and a half blocks from the Shamrock.
There’s no way to tell if Francis was in the first fight. In a GoFundMe page for the burial costs, her mother says she had nothing to do with it.
It says on the online fundraiser:
On Sunday, September 1, 2024, unfortunately, my daughter was tragically murdered due to senseless gun violence that had nothing to do with her. Raven was a loving mother of 4, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. She was loving, caring, outgoing, thoughtful and most of all, a fantastic mother. Family meant everything to her. Sadly, she did not have an insurance policy. We are crying out for help from our friends and family to give my daughter a proper burial and put her to rest, also help with the care of her 4 beautiful children. Anything counts, little or small, we are very appreciative for whatever is given. Thank you guys for everything in advance.
Court records obtained by WDSU, New Orleans-based ABC affiliate WGNO and Fox affiliate WVUE show that Mark has been arrested for murder once before. She was suspected of killing her ex-boyfriend in 2023. Prosecutors ultimately decided to drop the charges.
A representative for the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office told WVUE, “Our office carefully looked over the whole homicide case file from NOPD.” “There was some evidence that Mark may have been in the same car as the victim the morning of the murder, but not enough to say that she had anything to do with the shooting.”
Commissioner Jay Daniels of the Orleans District Court set Mark’s bond at $1 million on Thursday.
The suspect could be charged with more counts of aggravated battery, and police say more arrests are likely to happen soon.