Latest / Least of These / 222. “Just Leave” - The Story of Latifa Brown - Saint Paul, Minnesota

Transcript

222. “Just Leave” - The Story of Latifa Brown - Saint Paul, Minnesota · Least of These

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most, because every live matters and everyone deserves justice.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Leah Dean.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today I'll be covering the case of Latifa Brown and St. Paul, Minnesota.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's get right to it.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: 31-year-old Latifa Brown had big dreams.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to be a nurse.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to get married, but most of all she wanted to be a mom.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her biggest dream came true in 2020 when Latifa and her longtime boyfriend 35-year-old Mark Bell Jr. welcomed a baby boy.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: From the moment she laid eyes on her son, her life completely changed.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was, after all, her miracle baby.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see, Latifa had wanted more than anything to be a mom, but her journey to motherhood had been marked with tragedy.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa had suffered five miscarriages, each one more devastating in the one before.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: After so much loss, she finally welcomed a healthy baby boy, and she soaked in every moment that she could.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: First words, first steps, and then before she knew it a first
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Latifa's sister Buffy as she spoke in court, for her son's first birthday, Latifa went all out for a baby shark theme party, decorating with baby shark everything simply because her little boy loved the song.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When her sister asked why she'd done so much since he wasn't going to remember it, Latifa responded, I will.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who knew Latifa knew that that little boy
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa, Mark Bell Jr. and their son lived in a duplex near Layton Place in Sylvan Street in St. Paul.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa did all she could to make their house a happy home.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, it wasn't always happy.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though Latifa and Mark had been together for over a decade, their relationship was well to put it very mildly less than ideal.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: By January of 2022, it seemed trouble between the two was brewing again, so they made plans to meet up at a bar to discuss their relationship and work out their problems.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: That bar was Hoover's pub and it was just a few blocks from the home the couple shared.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: They made arrangements for their son for the night and headed to Hoover's.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, Mark Bell Jr. wasn't alone.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: He decided to bring along a friend to help them talk
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: This friend Mark Bell Jr. described as like a nephew to him, so it was Latifa, Mark Bell Jr., and this like a nephew friend of Bells.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: They all met up as planned, but the conversation must not have been going well.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because just before midnight, Latifa decided to walk home from the bar on her own.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: A few moments later, Mark Bell Jr. in the nephew friend pulled up at the house in a minivan.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: video surveillance captured the two men going inside the home.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now it wasn't captured on surveillance, but minutes after the three entered the apartment, neighbors heard loud arguing.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was so loud and heated at one point one of the neighbor's screen for it all to stop.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But moments after she did a gunshot ring out.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then two minutes after the men first entered the duplex, the video surveillance captured two individuals
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: When police arrived at the Duplex on late-in-place West in Sylvan Street, according to police documents obtained by eyewitness five news, they found 31-year-old Latifa Brown lying just outside the Duplex.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: She had been shot in the mouth, and there was a blood trail leading straight back into the home.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: St. Paul police officers immediately rendered first aid in called for paramedics.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when paramedics arrived at 12.19am, they pronounced Latifa Brown disease.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: As officers tried to make sense of the scene, Mark Bell Jr. and his friend were still inside the house.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: When they went to talk to him to figure out what had happened, Belle just kept asking officers over and over.
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is she dead?
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: As he did, officers noted that his breath smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Both Belle and his friend were taken to police headquarters for questioning as the scene was processed.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to that criminal complaint obtained by eyewitness five news, two guns were found at the scene, one inside the minivan parked outside, and another on the ground near the vehicle.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: There were no other weapons found inside the duplex, despite what Mark Bell Jr. would later tell police.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He would claim that Latifa kept three or four guns inside the home.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that wouldn't be all he'd tell police.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: at headquarters investigators sat down to formally talk with Mark Bell Jr.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He explained that he had met Latifa at Hoover's pub so they could work out their relationship issues.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: He brought his nephew friend along to help them talk everything through.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: The talk didn't go so well and after the bar closed, all three were headed back to the house, Latifa walking in the two men in a minivan.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: The friend tried to get Latifa to get into the vehicle with him in March, but she refused and walked home alone.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bell told police that at one point his friend had gotten out of the car to talk to Latifa, but hop back into the van after Latifa pointed a gun at him.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Bell Jr. went on to tell police that he and Latifa had been living together at the duplex for about a year with their son.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that Latifa Brown had recently gotten a permit to carry a firearm.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when she did, she obtained several guns and that she suddenly became more confrontational, pulling her gun on him and others multiple times.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the story, if you let Mark Bell Jr. tell it, was that Latifa had first pulled a gun on him that night while they were still at the bar.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just so we have this straight, Latifa pulled a gun on him at the bar, and then again on his friend when he tried to get her into the van, but instead of leaving, Bell followed her to the duplex.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course we know he arrived first in the minivan and when he did, according to his own story, he went into the house and grabbed one of the guns from inside.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa got to the house and the two began arguing, Mark Bell with a gun in his hand, and supposedly Latifa with a gun somewhere on her.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we know, things got so loud and heated, the upstairs neighbor came out and told them to stop arguing, and actually told Mark Bell Jr to leave.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Bell as they were arguing, Latifa told him that her gun was loaded and didn't have a safety.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: She then proceeded to pull the gun on him three separate times.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she had actually pulled the trigger a couple of times, but for some reason the gun didn't go off.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Bell was convinced Lativa was going to kill him, so he turned to leave.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when he turned around, he saw Lativa pointing the gun at him and heard a click.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's when he fired the gun, he had retrieved earlier.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He thought he was aiming away from her, but she fell, and that's when he realized she had been shot.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: For what it's worth, the nephew friend kind of corroborated at least part of his story, telling police that he saw through the storm door that Lativa had a gun in the entryway, and then he heard a shot.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's unclear if he ever corroborated the story about Lativa pulling a gun on him outside the minivan or not, I couldn't find that anywhere in the reporting.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I'd take just about anything this man told me with a grain of salt.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only because he was Bell Junior's nephew friend, but also because of what happened next.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because after Latifa had been shot, the two men drug her outside of the house together.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Bell Junior claimed that they drug her outside of the house to take her to the hospital, but then the cops arrived.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this goes without Saiyan, but Mark Bell Junior's story didn't make a lick of sense.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: For starters, if Latifa was threatening him with the gun as he claimed, why had he went home after the bar?
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where were the other guns he claimed she had in the duplex?
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And why was one gun found in the minivan?
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: If Latifa had been pointing a gun at him when she was shot, shouldn't the gun be there in the duplex?
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Was he claiming he locked the gun she had in the minivan, or carried it out as he drugged her body out of the house and threw it on the ground, because where exactly these two guns came from was nowhere in the story.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if he was pointing the gun away from her, how had she been shot directly in the mouth?
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if he was supposedly taking her to the hospital after he shot her, why were he and his friend inside the home when officers arrived?
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Bell Jr. had no good explanations for the many holes in his story, so it comes as no surprise that later that day he was arrested and booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of homicide.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: His bail was set at $1 million.
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Through all the lies, there was one part of Mark Bell Jr. story, however, that was true.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa Brown had gotten her gun permit, but perhaps part of the reason she felt the need to was because of her relationship with Mark Bell Jr. Latifa Brown's family claimed she was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Bell, and there was one documented incident of his alleged abuse.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Four years before Latifa was shot to death in her own home at the hands of Mark Bell.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: On March 24th, 2018, Latifa Brown reported to St. Paul Police that Mark Bell Jr. had assaulted her and stated, I am going to kill you and your sister one of these days.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, she was eight weeks pregnant and thought she was having a miscarriage due to the assault.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa told the officer that she thought if Mark Bill was drunk enough, he could kill her or seriously hurt her someday.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: She also went on to say that this wasn't the first incidence of violence and that he had assaulted her multiple times, abused her mentally, threatened her before, and told her that she did not deserve to have a baby.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa did have a miscarriage, and remember Latifa ended up having five miscarriages
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Five.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It appears his violence escalated when he drank alcohol as he had been the nightletifa brown had been murdered.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Officers at the scene had brought in their reports that Bell smelled of alcohol the night he shot Latifa.
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Reading Latifa's words after her murder was haunting, it was as if she had predicted her own death.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: One day Mark Bell Jr. would get drunk and he'd end up killing her.
• 12:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The 2018 report was taken a day or two after the assault, and a police officer and a doctor reported that they didn't see any marks on Latifa's body at the time she made the report.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Bell Jr. of course denied the abuse.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Ramsey County Attorney's Office reviewed the case and decided not to file charges due to insufficient evidence, all of this according to a police report obtained by the Twin City's Pioneer Press.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was one reported incident, but those that knew Latifa best including her sister Buffy Brown would later tell the media that despite the lack of reports, Latifa was in
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: While it certainly would have been helpful for all of the alleged abuse Latifa suffered at the hands of Mark Bell Jr. to have been documented, it's not uncommon for domestic violence to go unreported.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, according to the Emery University School of Medicine, most domestic violence incidents are not reported to police.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The numbers are staggering.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Statistics show that only around 25% of physical assaults are reported to police.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: For rape and sexual assaults, that number is somewhere around 20%.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's between 75 and 80% of abuse going un-reported.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy knew her sister was being abused.
• 13:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa had confided in her, but no matter how hard she tried, Buffy couldn't convince Latifa to leave Mark Bell Jr. for good.
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: On March 26, 2022, Latifa's friends and family held a rally near the home where Latifa was murdered.
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her sister, Buffy Brown, addressed the group gathered near a poster-sized photo of Latifa, stating, I hear from my brothers and my father that you can look into the face of Latifa and see the pain.
• 14:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You ask yourself, if she was so tired, why didn't she leave?
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: It sounds so simple, just leave, but the reality is that leaving a violent relationship is often way more complicated than it seems.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are many reasons a victim might choose to stay, like isolation from family and friends.
• 14:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fear, threats, economic necessity, lack of resources or information, maybe they have nowhere to go, or maybe they feel a sense of shame, believing that the abuses somehow therefore
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe they've been manipulated into believing that their partner will change, and things will get better.
• 14:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Spoiler alert, they never do.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa's brother John Brown Jr., said that he never knew that his sister was being abused until after her murder, and he was angry that he didn't know, and if he had known, he would have protected her.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the rally, the group formed a circle held hands and prayed together.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa's family was grieving and fighting for her justice, but unfortunately the battle wasn't only against a defendant, Mark Bell Jr., but also his family.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see, Bell's mother Juanita had custody of Latifa's young son.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: It just so happened, she was the one watching the little boy the night his mother was murdered, you know, by his father.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Juanita believed her son was innocent and claimed she had been threatened by Latifa's family.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: A claim the brown family adamantly denied.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But since he was with Juanita that night, he had been left in her care and custody.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she had refused to let the boy see Latifa side of the family after the murder.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only had they lost a daughter in a sister, but Latifa's father in siblings had the little boy they all loved so much ripped out of their arms as well.
• 16:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy Brown spoke to Twin Cities Pioneer Press and stated, we don't get to hold our baby in our arms, we don't get to tell him it's okay, we don't get to tell him about his mama.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa's father, John Brown's senior,
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Juanita Brown wasn't backing down, she was seeking sole legal and physical custody, writing in court documents that she should gain custody of her grandson because his mother died and her son is incarcerated.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seems like she left out the part that the boy's mother was murdered and her son was incarcerated because he was the one accused of shooting her in the face.
• 16:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: She went on to tell the Twin Cities pioneer press that her son, Mark Bell Jr., wanted her to have custody.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she had been involved with her grandson since he was born.
• 17:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: She stated, I know I've been there for my grandbaby.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe it's true that she had been there for the young boy.
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: But after everything that happened, did she seriously think anyone gave two shits about what Mark Bell Jr. wanted?
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The audacity of some people never ceases to amaze me.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while it seems like common sense in a situation like this that if the victim's family is willing and able to raise the child when one parent has been murdered at the hands of another, that the victim's family is awarded custody?
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately legally, it isn't that way.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Being a relative of someone accused of murder doesn't rule them out from gaining custody.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The best interest of the child is supposed to be at the forefront of the court's decision-making process.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: But is it truly in the best interest of the child to leave them in a home where the parental figure, in this case the grandmother, believes in her son's innocence, despite the fact that he was charged with murder, and that same parental figure is refusing to allow any contact with the victim's side of the family.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave that one up to you to decide.
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a heartbreaking twist, Buffy Brown told the Twin Cities pioneer press that Latifa had asked her to babysit the night of January 21st, the night before the murder, but Buffy already had plans.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: She stated to the outlet, I said not today, but tomorrow I got you.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know that I wouldn't have a tomorrow.
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, it appears that Lativa's family was granted at least visitation with her son.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Under court order, they were granted visitation with the boy every other weekend for three hours.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: That report was in 2022.
• 18:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I could find no further updates or reports of Lativa's son's custody, which that wouldn't be public information nor should it be.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can only hope that the brown family is getting far more time with a little boy at this point.
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: In September of 2022, Mark Bell Jr. struck a deal with prosecutors.
• 19:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: He pled guilty to second-degree intentional murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But of course, 20 years doesn't mean 20 years.
• 19:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported that most inmates in Minnesota serve only two-thirds of their actual sentence, and the remaining time has served on supervised release.
• 19:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was looking at somewhere around 13 years.
• 19:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: His son was sentenced to a lifetime without his mother, and this dirt bag will likely be out in just 13 short years.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wherein' the hell is the justice in that?
• 19:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Assistant Ramsey County Attorney and Borosha Mosby Velasco defended the deal, telling the outlet that they didn't take this plea deal lightly, but had to take a few things in a consideration.
• 20:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Prosecutors didn't feel they had legal evidence of premeditation.
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bell was pleading guilty to the top count of intentional murder.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: A witness, that witness, of course, being the nephew friend, said he saw a brown point of gun at Bell.
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: and Bell's DNA had only been found on the gun's muscle and not the hand grip, and finally that Bell remained on the scene and cooperated with the investigation.
• 20:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mosby Velasco went on to say that if the case had gone to trial, Mark Bell Jr.'s attorney could have argued self-defense, and he may have been found not guilty.
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, isn't that always the case?
• 20:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it does seem the Assistant County Attorney could have been on to something, because its sentencing Mark Bell Jr. apologized for what he called a cowardly act, but in the same breath claimed he acted in self-defense.
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: If that ain't enough to gag a maggot, Mark Bell Jr. is currently incarcerated at MCF
• 21:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: After the court proceedings were over, Buffy Brown released the video taken by the neighbors of her sister's final moments.
• 21:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the most heartbreaking two minutes of audio I've ever heard.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa is screaming in desperation telling Belle to just leave and get away from her.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The neighbor yells down also pleading with Bell to just go.
• 21:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Second slater allowed gunshot rings out, and then there are just two male voices.
• 21:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: One asking, man, what did you just do?
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa's voice was never heard again.
• 21:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: As it often goes, many have asked that million dollar question.
• 21:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't she just leave?
• 21:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in this case, I think the real question is, why didn't he?
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa Tasha Brown was just 31 years old when her life was tragically taken at the hands of a man who claimed to love her.
• 22:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was a daughter, a sister, a mother, and a friend.
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those that knew and love Latifa said she put so much love out into the world.
• 22:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was described as silly and at the same time intelligent.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was full of life and love to cook, especially shrimp boils fried chicken and greens.
• 22:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: All recipes she learned from her mom.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: She used to stay up late talking to her sister on the phone.
• 22:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her sister Buffy described her as a firecracker who liked to talk.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though Latifa has gone her spirit lives on through her little boy, Buffy stated to the twin city's pioneer press, when he smiles, you see Latifa.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: She went on to tell the outlet that her nephew often asked to see videos and photos of his mom, and that he waves towards the sky and blows kisses, saying, Hi Mama, I love you.
• 22:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy fears the day he'll be old enough to realize his own father stole his mother,
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy Brown has gone on to share Latifa's story and hopes that it helps other women realize their worth and escape violent relationships.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: In one interview with CBS News, she revealed that she knew something was wrong in her sister's relationship early on, stating, the moment he put his hands on her for the first time with the belt, I knew right then.
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The physical and mental abuse only got worse, as it did Latifa found Sala set her sister's home.
• 23:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: When it all got to be too much for Latifa, she would come to stay with her sister.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy recalled that she'd stay for a day or two, but then she'd go back to Belle, explaining that he bought her flowers, or he said he was sorry.
• 23:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy would try to talk her out of returning to Belle, but Latifa always went back.
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: She stated, I think Latifa was one of those women out there who believed that you can change them, or you believe that if you wait around long enough, that they'll change themselves, that they'll get help.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in Latifa's case, as is the case with so many other women, things never changed, and it cost a 31-year-old mother her life.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Buffy now encourages women in similar situations to get help.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: She stated, your life matters to people who love you and for those you love.
• 24:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: You deserve so much more than that.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're worthy of greatness.
• 24:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Latifa's life, she was worthy of greatness.
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Domestic violence crosses every race, age, gender, or socio-economic status, and all too often, victim-suffer-isolated, alone and in silence.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: If there is only one thing you take away from today's episode, let it be this.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you or someone you know is trapped in the cycle of domestic violence, you are not alone.
• 24:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is hope and a way out.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The cycle can be broken, and you could be the one to break it.
• 24:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are resources available to get you started on your path to freedom.
• 25:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the U.S., you can visit thehotline.org for more information or text the word start to 888-788.
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Please make the call.
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that my friends is all I've got for this week, be sure to join me next Thursday for an all new episode.
• 25:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram at least under score of these or my Facebook at least at these podcast.
• 25:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're sick of that in eruptions, I've got good news for you.
• 25:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can get all your episodes at free just the way you like them for just $2 a month.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as a member of Patreon, you'll be the first to be notified when new tiers will be launched with exclusive episodes and a few bonus surprises.
• 25:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Head on over to patreon.com slash least of these to support the show today.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for caring.
• 25:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you know something, say something.
• 26:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, be good to each other.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am so glad you all stuck around.
• 26:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am going to apologize right now for my voice.
• 26:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought we were ready to do this, but it got rough.
• 26:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I hope I hope I can fix that netting.
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is taken far longer to record than never should have.
• 27:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, but I got a lot to say, I stumbled upon the video on Facebook.
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's on the Justice for Latifa Facebook page, which it looks like is ran by her sister, Buffy.
• 27:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, that was one of the hardest things I've ever watched, and I've seen a lot.
• 27:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can hear the desperation and Latifa's voice as she's telling him to leave.
• 27:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I contemplated playing it for y'all, you know, sometimes I like to include audio from the case, but I realized that would be way too triggering for a lot of people, and I wasn't going to just thrust that on you wire, drive into work and not prepared.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can hear the desperation and her voice as she's telling him to leave.
• 27:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's yelling so loud and I can't even make out what he was saying.
• 27:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you're jolted when the gunshot rings out.
• 27:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: The neighbor was backing, just leave, just go.
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, all the time, we question the women, why didn't they just leave?
• 27:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't she just go?
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Mark Bell had how many chances to leave that night?
• 28:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: leave cool off, even if they didn't leave each other permanently, he could have went somewhere calm down.
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he didn't do that.
• 28:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now Latif is gone.
• 28:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And her son is was just over a year old.
• 28:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's so devastating that she wanted more than anything else to be a mom.
• 28:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she only got that opportunity for a year when she should have gotten it for a lifetime.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you think I believe any of his story about her having a gun, I don't, because if that's the case, why is one gun the minivan and one gun just outside?
• 28:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no gun found where she was shot.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you tell him he was just altering the scene like if he was really planning on taking her to the hospital because he didn't mean to do what he did, he would have had no time to be worried about putting a gun somewhere, hiding a gun somewhere, putting it outside her.
• 28:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy, and I'm not a prosecutor, but I think that statement's bullshit.
• 28:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you just ask me if it's just my opinion, that statement's bullshit.
• 28:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: People just like to take plea deals, because it's easier, and it's cheaper, and I get that.
• 29:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in this case, no, sir.
• 29:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, ma'am.
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't deserve a plea deal.
• 29:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing's captured on video.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was no justice in this life for Latifa.
• 29:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: At all, 13 years is bananas.
• 29:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's nothing.
• 29:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing.
• 29:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing for taking the life of a mother at such a young age.
• 29:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: This woman had had five miscarriages.
• 29:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not one, not two, not three, not four, but five.
• 29:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I have no doubt in my mind, and again, this is just my opinion that those were all caused by the abuse she suffered at this man's hands.
• 29:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: You'll never change my mind.
• 29:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then his his mom, oh, yeah, my son didn't do nothing.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's innocent.
• 29:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you kidding me right now, lady?
• 29:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to be that's that's got to be a bad joke.
• 29:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 29:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's a bad joke.
• 29:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're joking.
• 29:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cause you cannot seriously believe that.
• 29:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can not seriously believe that his story was the gun was pulled on him like 17 times, and he just stood there.
• 29:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then when he turned to leave, he thought that's when, even if there was a gun involved, let's just say there was.
• 30:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was pulled on you didn't defend yourself the first time, but like on the fifth time, that's when you decided to do it.
• 30:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The story doesn't make any damn sense to anybody with half of a brain cell.
• 30:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 30:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Your son's not innocent.
• 30:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's guilty, and he got away with it.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, 13 years is nothing.
• 30:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He should never be getting out of jail.
• 30:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's just all be real about it right now.
• 30:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's insane.
• 30:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: She had had five miscarriages.
• 30:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is so heartbreaking, and still, he only gets 13 years, and that leads me to this.
• 30:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Statistically speaking, I know some of you out there who are listening to this right now are in violent relationships.
• 30:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're being abused.
• 30:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe your family knows, maybe your family doesn't.
• 30:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't get better.
• 30:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: They can, they can promise to change a million in one time.
• 30:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I personally have never seen it happen.
• 30:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it doesn't happen.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: A leopard don't change a spot.
• 30:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sings don't get to be saying without some truth to them.
• 31:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: it's not going to get better.
• 31:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, there are people waiting to help you.
• 31:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're waiting for you to make that call.
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: People you know, people you don't know.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now I do always have to preface this with some caution.
• 31:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: We all know that the most dangerous time for a domestic violence victim is when they choose to leave.
• 31:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you've got to make a plan.
• 31:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've got it to get it together.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've got to have safety measures put in place, but you got to get out.
• 31:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not your fault.
• 31:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing you can do to change them.
• 31:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have to do what you have to do for you.
• 31:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you deserve that.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You deserve to live a life free from abuse and violence.
• 31:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone deserves that.
• 31:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The hotline.org is a great place to start.
• 31:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can find resources in your area.
• 31:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there are people who it's literally their job to help you come up with a plan that works for you and your family to get you some more safe.
• 31:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that you do it.
• 31:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that you start that today right now as soon as you're done listening to this episode because you don't deserve to live like that.
• 32:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And before I get all emotional about it, just make the call.
• 32:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to tell your story here.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't.
• 32:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I hope there's a day where I run out of stories to tell, especially when it comes to domestic violence.
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not love y'all.
• 32:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not love.
• 32:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you deserve a safe and true love.
• 32:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you do?
• 32:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so do it.
• 32:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Y'all know I love you more in my luggage, and I can't wait to talk at you next week.
• 32:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But until then, bye-bye, boo-thing!