A New Orleans rapper was arrested on October 19 for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend in her parent’s driveway in front of her young son. The child is reported to be either eight or nine years old.
Justin Rene Lewis was arrested by DeKalb County police in connection with the death of Raesha Heard, age 31, who was allegedly pregnant at the time of her death. According to WSB-TV, police had been looking for Lewis since Heard was shot seven times on October 11 as she took groceries out of her car trunk. Her family told the media that Heard had broken up with Lewis, a rapper who goes by the name Mad Muzik Cali, because he was abusive. After six days, police located him in a park.
Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in the United States. Research shows that women in the U.S. are more likely to be murdered during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth than to die from the three leading obstetric causes of maternal death — high blood pressure disorders, hemorrhage, or sepsis.
READ: Florida man who murdered pregnant niece gets three life sentences: ‘That baby was a real person’
Heard’s family told WSB-TV that Lewis’s arrest has brought them some peace and a feeling of safety.
“I’m just happy that Justin is captured. Because we don’t want anybody else to experience this. No other family,” said Heard’s sister Rhona Heard Dickens. She said Lewis had abused Heard for years.
After the shooting, Lewis was on social media, even going live as if he wasn’t wanted by the police.
“I actually posted that he was wanted and we were going to find him and he liked it,” said Heard’s niece Rastarja Heard. “He liked the status.”
Lewis is being held in the DeKalb County Jail on a charge of malice murder. Heard’s funeral took place on Monday.
It is currently unclear if Lewis will be charged with the death of Heard’s preborn child.
