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Family mourns 29-year-old mother killed in shooting near Love Field
The family of the victim is still mourning after their loved one was shot and killed. Her father says she wasn't in a relationship with the suspect at the time of the shooting.
DALLAS, Texas - The family of a woman murdered Sunday night is trying to make sense of what happened.
Dallas police say the victim and the suspect who's in custody knew each other.
The family of the victim is still mourning after their loved one was shot and killed. Her father says she wasn't in a relationship with the suspect at the time of the shooting.
It's a heartbreak her family wasn't prepared for.
29-year-old Chapeera Lee lost her life after being fatally shot about 10:30 p.m. Sunday near Love Field. She leaves behind an 8-year-old son.
"Even when I told him she passed away, I had to tell him like 10 times," said her dad, Marlon Bates. "Because he was like, ‘Naw, papa. Call my momma.’ He was a momma’s baby."
Dallas police say they responded to what was originally called in as an accident on Inwood Road near Lemmon Avenue. But then, first responders found Lee shot in the car she was driving.
29-year-old mother shot and killed in Dallas, suspect charged
Police responded to a call for an accident on Sunday night, only to find one of the drivers had been shot.
They say 32-year-old Cortez Nute was driving another car, and detectives determined Nute was the shooter. He's charged with murder.
"I’ve never seen that man a day in my life," Bates said. "She just was talking to him I guess a couple months or something. At the time that this happened, they weren’t together."
Court records show Nute's criminal history includes abuse against women. He was already facing charges for allegedly punching and hitting a woman back in April.
Dallas police say Lee and Nute knew each other but would not elaborate.
Bates says the relationship between his daughter and the suspect wasn't serious, adding that Lee was trying to stay away from the suspect.
Cortez Nute, April 11, 2023 arrest (Source: Dallas County)
"She didn’t wanna talk to him, and I guess no wasn’t an option," he said. "I don’t know what he was thinking."
Bates says now they're focusing on the burial and raising her son.
"Everything is on the family right now. There wasn’t insurance or anything like that. We got to find a way to bury her right now," he said. "We got an 8-year-old little boy that we got to make sure… he’s not gonna see his momma no more. He didn’t think about that."
Lee's father says she was in school to be a nurse.
Meanwhile, the suspect is set to be arraigned overnight.