A 41-year-old man was in custody Monday after he allegedly abducted and killed a real estate agent after luring her to a home she was showing on New Year’s Eve.
Cedric L. Berry was charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with the shooting death of Monique Baugh, 28, an agent at Kris Lindahl Real Estate in Minneapolis. According to police, Baugh was abducted at the home and driven in a rental truck to an alley where she was shot in the head.
Kris Lindahl set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for Baugh’s two daughters, ages 1 and 3.
“The world lost someone amazing when Monique Baugh passed away on December 31st. Monique was a beautiful person who was kind and compassionate,” members of the real estate firm wrote on the Go Fund Me page.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune described Baugh’s attacker as a man with a “long and violent gang history.” Police believe Berry may have been a “rival” drug dealer to Baugh’s boyfriend, according to court documents.
“I cannot begin to describe how vicious the behavior was in this case,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement. “We have charged Mr. Berry with setting a trap for Ms. Baugh, assassinating her at close range and shooting at her boyfriend while in [a] house with two small children. We are seeking high bail and will do all in our power to prove him guilty.”
In February, the National Association of Realtors took a look at four murders of real-estate professionals across the country, and listed some initiatives to help tackle the problem.
In 2017, The Real Deal looked more broadly at the issue of agent safety, and how brokers deal with the specter of threat. According to a 2017 NAR survey, 44 percent of real estate offices have standard procedures for agent safety, while 52 percent of men and 57 percent of women carry self-defense weapons ranging from pepper spray to Tasers to noisemakers. [MST] — Tina Daunt