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The Republican
January 1, 2008

Domestic killings escalate in 2007

By PATRICK JOHNSON
pjohnson@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - The year started off bad and ended up worse.
Springfield tallied its first homicide of 2007 just two hours into the new year when one man was killed and five people injured in a shootout at a Main Street restaurant that police said was triggered by a spilled glass of water.

Nearly 12 months later, the city was rocked when a mother and her two young daughters were found dead on Dec. 12 in their Pearl Street apartment, just steps away from the police station. The woman's husband, the girls' stepfather, faces three counts of murder.

In a year when overall crime in the City of Homes declined by 8 percent, the homicide rate jumped from 15 to 20, a 33 percent increase. It was the highest number of homicides in any year since at least 1994.

As disturbing as the total number, police said, is the unusually high number of homicides - eight, or 40 percent - committed by family members, parents or close acquaintances.

In those eight instances, five of the victims were children between the ages of 5 months and 9 years.

"We were appalled by the numbers," said Police Commissioner Edward A. Flynn in one of his final interviews before departing Springfield for his new job as police chief in Milwaukee.

"In an average year, there are one or two domestic homicides; this year there were eight," he said.

The number of domestic homicides in 2007 equals the total for the years 2001 through 2006, he said.

And it is a number which easily could have been higher.

The city's list does not include a 23-year-old Springfield woman shot and killed on June 1 in a crowded West Springfield shopping plaza by an estranged boyfriend who then killed himself.

It also does not include the June 18 shooting on Phoenix Terrace in which a 26-year-old man opened fire on his estranged wife and then turned the gun on himself. She survived; he didn't.

Flynn expressed hope that the domestic homicide numbers were an aberration.

He and his deputy chiefs, North District commander William J. Noonan, Central District commander William C. Cochrane, South District commander William J. Fitchet, and investigations commander Mark Anthony, each said the department takes all acts of domestic violence seriously.

But for police to stop violence between family members that happens behind closed doors - especially when there are no outward signs of trouble - can be difficult, they said.

"It can be very difficult for us to intervene," Noonan said.

During Flynn's tenure, Springfield police focused on using crime data to anticipate where trouble is brewing and then to deploy officers to those spots to prevent it.

It has produced some favorable results. The department's year-end crime numbers show an overall decline of 8 percent. Car thefts are down by 17 percent, larcenies by 12 percent, serious assaults by 6 percent, and burglaries by two percent. There was just one gang-related homicide, compared to five in 2006.

Gun assaults are down by 14 percent, and police confiscated 142 illegal guns, including 85 during drug arrests, Anthony said.
In each of eight domestic-related homicide cases, police were not aware of any of the traditional warning signs of potential violence, Flynn said.

There were no restraining orders, no complaints from neighbors about constant fighting by the couple next door, no reports that police were ever called to any of the houses to quell a disturbance, he said.

"I'm not trying to assert there's nothing the Police Department can do to prevent (domestic homicides), but it is difficult when there has been no previous reporting," Flynn said.

Advocates against domestic violence said what is happening in Springfield is indicative of what is happening statewide.

Massachusetts saw a record 43 domestic homicides in 2007, an increase from 31 in 2006, according to Jane Doe Inc., a Boston-based organization devoted to combating domestic violence and violence toward women.

The domestic homicide rate across the state has nearly tripled since 2005, said Isa M. Woldeguiorguis, the agency's director of policy and strategic planning. "I wouldn't call it an anomaly," she said.

The rise in homicides reflects an increase in overall cases of domestic violence and the decrease in available federal and state programs that combat it, she said.

During the mid-1990s, the last time the number of domestic homicides spiked, Massachusetts devoted resources to combat the problem, she said. But in recent years, there has been what she called "a lack of focus," she said. "I wouldn't call it a systemic failure, but some would."

Marianne Winters, of Springfield, director of the Everywoman's Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, said the domestic murder rate should be a bellwether for a greater problem.

"The homicide rate is important because it indicates the overall level of violence," Winters said.

She said the Everywoman's Center has noticed not only an escalation in domestic violence, but in the level of brutality.

Mary Reardon Johnson, executive director of the Western Massachusetts YWCA, also said her agency is seeing an increase in domestic violence.

Three years ago, the YWCA decided to expand its emergency shelter. At the time, Johnson said, the facility was turning away six of every seven women in need of shelter.

"We built a 48-bed shelter, and now we're turning away eight women for every one we take in," Johnson said.

The agency's hotline receives 9,000 calls per year, she said.

Johnson said it is unfortunate that it takes the death of a mother and her children for people to notice the issue.

People were up in arms when pro quarterback Michael Vick was arrested for abusing dogs, "yet we don't seem to have the same outragewhen people mistreat women and children," Johnson said.

Winters said there needs to be more recognition that domestic violence is occurring in all communities. At the neighborhood level, it is a quality-of-life issue, she said.

"People don't think of domestic violence as crime in the neighborhood," she said.

Springfield police said they treat domestic violence seriously.

"We are not ignoring domestic violence," Cochrane said.

The department has a has a 10-page protocol that stipulates how officers are supposed to treat cases of reported domestic violence.

Officers are to treat reports of abuse the same way they would any criminal activity. When there is probable cause that an assault has occurred, the arrest of a suspect "is the preferred response," according to the policy.

It also says officers are to remain on scene for as long as they believe someone is in danger, and they are to arrange transportation if the victim wants to leave.

All reports of domestic abuse are followed up by the Domestic Violence Unit, and by the department's two civilian domestic violence coordinators.

"We spend a lot of time on this," Anthony said.