In the News

Recent shootings illustrate toll of domestic violence, experts say
By Grant Welker
Fall River Herald News
January 24, 2010

Two apparent murder-suicide attempts in southeastern Massachusetts on the same day last week show the devastating effect of domestic violence, area women’s groups say.

On Sunday, a 23-year-old Seekonk man is believed to have shot his girlfriend from Attleboro before turning the gun on himself. Both died. That same night, a 61-year-old Fall River man is suspected of shooting his estranged wife, who was seriously injured, before fatally shooting himself in the Oriental Pearl restaurant in Westport.

There have been two other apparent murder-suicides in the state this month: On Jan. 9, a Westford man allegedly shot his wife to death before attempting to kill himself in their home. According to reports, the couple’s three sons were home at the time of the shooting. The man was arraigned from his hospital bed.

Days later in Spencer, a 69-year-old man apparently killed his wife and himself after lighting their house on fire.

“People need to understand that it can happen to anyone,” said Pamela MacLeod-Lima, the executive director of The Women’s Center in New Bedford, a city where last year more people were killed by a spouse or partner than any other kind of homicide.

The new year has opened with a rash of such incidents. Just this month, four suspected cases of domestic violence — all involving guns — had claimed six lives.

“It is terribly alarming,” said Toni Troop, the communications director for Jane Doe Inc., a statewide coalition against domestic and sexual assault.

“It has been a disturbing trend so far this year,” said Gregg Miliote, spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter, whose office has a unit dedicated to domestic violence cases.

The sudden jump in incidents could be coincidental or the sign of a trend. Whatever the reason, the number of domestic assault deaths early in 2010 is more than one-quarter of the total recorded in all of 2009.

There were two deaths in January 2009 and 23 for the year, according to Jane Doe Inc.
Domestic homicide numbers have fluctuated before, nearly tripling in Massachusetts from 2005 to 2007. In 2005, there were 15 murders and four domestic violence-related suicides, according to Jane Doe. In 2006, those numbers rose to 28 murders and three suicides; in 2007, there were 42 murders and 13 suicides.

The state's Department of Public Health issued a rare public health advisory on domestic violence in June 2008. At the time, DPH Commissioner John Auerbach called the rise in violence “disturbing” and " a pressing health issue."

The number of domestic violence fatalities fell after the health advisory, a trend that continued through 2009, Troop said.

But in greater New Bedford, the number of domestic violence victims seeking helped from The Women's Center has increased 25 to 30 percent in the past 18 months, MacLeod-Lima said.

One factor may be the economy. Financial strains are a common reason for worsening domestic violence, women's groups say, and New Bedford's unemployment rate is regularly among the highest in the state.

Other data show the scope of domestic violence. The SSTAR Women’s Center in Fall River, which offers legal and counseling services, referrals, and other tools, recorded 550 clients last year. They came primarily from Fall River, Somerset, Swansea and Westport.

“By the time we see them here, they’ve already lost a lot,” said Dale Brown, the director of SSTAR’s Women’s Center, of the level of abuse victims often endure before they finally seek help.

One-third of an average police officer’s shift is spent on domestic violence calls, MacLeod-Lima said, while two-thirds of hospital calls made by women are for domestic violence.

Other numbers offer a more hopeful picture.

None of Fall River’s homicides last year were determined to be related to domestic abuse, Brown said.

The Bristol County district attorney’s office began a project last year to cut the number of domestic violence cases dismissed in court when a victim refuses to testify. As part of the program, the office spent more time talking with victims about available services and used other methods like jail phone records to catch abusers urging their victims to drop charges.

Last April, before the program began, more than 120 domestic violence cases were dismissed in courts across the county because victims didn’t want to continue charges, Miliote said.
A month later, that number fell to 75. By November, that figure was 25, and in December, it was 16.

Katie Rayburn, an assistant district attorney in charge of the domestic violence unit, also red-flagged 32 of the most serious domestic violence cases, Miliote said. Of those, only two were dismissed and most ended in jail time.