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‘It’s senseless’: Portsmouth mother speaks out after daughter is gunned down in her front yard

Posted at 12:12 PM, May 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-11 19:05:25-04

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - A woman was murdered outside her Portsmouth home on March 14. In court on Friday, her family came to ensure her alleged killer remains behind bars.

Jennifer Bartell

39-year-old Jennifer Bartell was shot after a fight that started from a Facebook post. According to court documents, Bartell's teenage daughter, a friend and several other women agreed to meet up to fight. The fight was blown off until several people showed up at Bartell's home. According to police, the fight escalated and ended in gunfire.

News 3 spoke to Bartell's mother, Pat Adams, outside court on Friday after the suspected gunman, Joshua Bowen, asked a judge for bond. It was denied, which relieved Adams.

"If he would shoot one person over something as senseless as Facebook, who knows what might be next and I need to keep my family safe." she told us.

Adams said she was coming from chemotherapy that day in March when she stopped in Portsmouth, and after the visit with her daughter and grandchildren she got back on the road and got a phone call from her granddaughter saying that Jennifer had been shot.

Bartell was a mother of six. She also had two grandchildren.

In total, four people have been charged in the murder. Joshua Bowen is charged with murder while Shaunika Cooley, Albany Pierce and Shyrayno Jackson are all charged with accessory to murder and have bonded out of jail.

Adams and her family were in court Friday to face the four accused.

"We just going to get through it the best we can and we will be back for every trial because I want to see justice done," she said.

A judge has ordered Cooley and Pierce, who are mother and daughter, to not have any contact with Jackson.

All four suspects are expected back in court on June 1 at 1 p.m.

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