Montgomery County prosecutors have charged Destino Jean Louis, 23, with murder in the fatal shooting of his estranged wife, 45-year-old Latosha Ann Cooper, outside the Walmart in Cheltenham where both had worked.
Cooper was shot at about 11:30 p.m. on October 21 in the store’s parking lot as she left work. Jean Louis faces first- and third-degree murder charges along with firearms offenses and is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
According to a criminal complaint and probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, a coworker had just walked out to the lot with Cooper and was standing nearby talking when a masked man in a blue-gray hooded sweatshirt approached and opened fire.
“[The co-worker] and the victim walked out to their vehicles together and were standing in the parking lot talking. [The co-worker] said she saw a black male … wearing a blue-gray colored thin hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and a mask that covered his face, walk by her. [The co-worker] said the male slowly walked up toward the victim and shot her.”
The coworker told investigators she heard two or three gunshots, ran back to the store entrance, called out on her phone for employees to let her in, then dialed 911. Officers found Cooper beside her Nissan sedan with a gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy determined she died of multiple gunshot wounds. Surveillance video reportedly showed a masked man waiting near a bush with a clear view of the store’s entrance before Cooper came outside. Investigators say the gunman fled on foot toward Philadelphia.
A Marriage, Then a Withdrawn Petition
Jean Louis and Cooper had been romantically involved. They obtained a marriage license on March 31, 2025, and married the following month. Relatives and former coworkers told investigators the marriage was intended to help Jean Louis secure legal status in the United States.
Jean Louis had entered the country from Haiti in 2023 under a humanitarian program that was later terminated, according to the affidavit. Cooper eventually cut off contact with him, and in July 2026 she withdrew a petition that would have allowed him to remain in the country as her spouse.
One employee told investigators Jean Louis admitted to physically assaulting Cooper because he believed she had disrespected him. When the employee said that was wrong, Jean Louis allegedly responded that such disrespect would not be tolerated in his home country and that he would do it again.
Phone Records and a Bag of Ammunition
Employees told investigators Jean Louis had contacted them about Cooper’s work schedule, something he acknowledged during a post-arrest interview with detectives. Cellphone records reportedly showed repeated trips between his Philadelphia residence and the Cheltenham Walmart in the weeks before the shooting, and placed his phone near the store at the time Cooper was killed.
U.S. marshals arrested Jean Louis on October 23 at a home in Philadelphia on immigration violations. The Marshals Service said he had overstayed his visa and was the primary suspect in Cooper’s killing. A search of the home turned up a bag containing 11 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition, the same caliber as the projectiles recovered from Cooper, according to authorities cited by 6abc.
Jean Louis has denied killing Cooper, telling detectives he was at the Philadelphia home when the shooting occurred. He also denied ever possessing a firearm.
