Hélène Mank
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Hélène ({{#invoke:IPAc-en|main}}; French: [e.lɛn];) Mank (b. 1988) is a patrol deputy with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office, who first meets Case Garland while responding to his report of aggravated assault. She has spent her entire life in the parish, and has been a police officer for over eight years. As one of the few women and one of the few African Americans on the police force in St. Charles, she is constantly forced to achieve perfection in order to avoid being criticized.
Biography
Early life
Hélène was born in Boutte, Louisiana, to Beulah (nee Hardy) and Antoine Mank. Her was a teacher in New Orleans, while her father owned a lawn and landscaping business. When Hélène was two, her mother helped lead a three-week teacher's strike against the New Orleans Public School system. Hélène spent much of those three weeks on the picket line with her mother.
They led a relatively simple life until Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. In the aftermath of the storm and the flooding in New Orleans, Beulah lost her teaching job. Antoine's business, however, picked up substantially as people sought to both clean their properties and make them more resilient to storms and flooding. Despite working long hours to help her father keep up with all the jobs that spring, Hélène graduated cum laude in May 2006.
Intending to take over her father's business, Hélène continued working full-time with him while enrolling at Southeastern Louisiana University to study Business Administration. She graduated in 2010, this time Magna Cum Laude.
Professional life
Hélène spent the next two years working with her father with the dream of expanding his business by adding a nursery and garden store. To gain experience running a store, Hélène begin working at JR Feed & Seed in Dutchtown. One weekend, as she was closing up the shop, two men forced their way in and demanded the money from the registers. Although Hélène kept her cool, her co-worker, a high school senior, panicked and screamed. One of the men shot the girl point-blank in the chest; the other, startled, fired his gun too, hitting Hélène in the lower torso. The bullet grazed her liver. During her recovery, Hélène decided to become a police officer.
