A woman who was recently shot to death in a brazen daytime attack outside Washington was married to two men, authorities say. One is a well-known actor from west Africa. The other is a convicted cocaine trafficker who was described as a “major Baltimore drug dealer” before going to prison.
Bettie Jenifer, 44, was gunned down in front of about 10 people as she walked from work to a parking lot Friday afternoon, police said. The shooter fled the scene in the Maryland suburb of Greenbelt.
“Somebody wanted her dead,” Greenbelt Police Department spokesman George Mathews told WJLA on Sunday.
Matthews said police were still sifting through layers of information surrounding Jenifer’s life, which apparently includes the overlap of two marriages.
One had just begun.
Jenifer had married Ghanaian actor Chris Attoh in Ghana in October, media outlets reported. He’s known for his role as “Kwame Mensah” in the Nigerian program “Tinsel.”
Attoh now lives in California and has been cooperating with police, according to FOX 5 , a Washington-area TV station. His management office told FOX 5 that Attoh “is grieving and has no comment at this stage.”
Bettie Jenifer was still married to husband Kedrick Jenifer, although divorce proceedings began last month, according to media outlets that cited court records.
The two had previously shared a home in Bowie, Maryland, not far from Greenbelt.
In 2016, then-U.S. Attorney U.S. Rod Rosenstein said Kedrick Jenifer “lived large as a major Baltimore drug dealer” who imported large amounts of cocaine from Texas, according to the Baltimore Sun.
That year, Kedrick Jenifer was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. He also was ordered to forfeit four homes, hundreds of thousands of dollars and vehicles that included a Rolls Royce and a Ferrari.
During his drug-dealing career, one of Kedrick’s drug couriers was killed after he was caught transporting cocaine outside Houston, law enforcement officials said.
Prosecutors said law enforcement agents believe the man’s homicide “was the direct result of the cocaine seizure,” although Kedrick Jenifer was not charged in the killing.
Police in Maryland say they’re “casting a wide net” as they investigate Bettie Jenifer’s slaying.
Bettie Jenifer was shot after she left the employment agency she owned. Police said a gunman chased her down once she got to the parking lot.
“Our investigators do not believe this was random,” said Mathews, the police department spokesman.
“It was very brazen – it happened in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. And that’s very concerning, but we do not believe this was a random act.” (AP)