On the evening of January 9, 2019, Chatéri Alyse Payne, a 22-year-old female Shreveport Police Officer, was preparing to leave for her shift. Dressed in her uniform, she was fatally shot outside the home she shared with her boyfriend, Tre'Veon Demarcus Anderson, and their young daughter. Payne was a recent graduate of the police academy, having been with the department for just a few months.
The initial 911 call came from Anderson, who claimed that someone else had shot Payne and that he had fired at a person dressed in black fleeing the scene. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, Officer Payne succumbed to her injuries within hours.
Investigators quickly began to question Anderson's account of the events. Their suspicions grew, and within a week, Anderson, the father of Payne's child, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Police alleged that Anderson had shot and killed Payne and then fabricated the story of an unknown assailant. Two other men, Lawrence Pierre, Anderson's cousin, and Glenn Frierson, were also arrested and charged as accomplices in the murder. According to reports, Pierre admitted to being present during the killing and led investigators to the location of the murder weapon, a. 40-caliber handgun.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a measure of justice for Chatéri Payne's family. On the day his trial was set to begin, Lawrence Pierre pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In April 2022, a jury found Tre'Veon Anderson guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that Anderson's motive was that Payne intended to leave him and take their child. Anderson subsequently received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, with an additional 30 years for the conspiracy charge, to be served consecutively. The third man, Glenn Frierson, was acquitted of the murder and conspiracy charges. However, he was later sentenced to over 12 years in federal prison on unrelated firearm and drug charges.
