Domestic Violence Headlines for Week of Aug. 11

Well, it’s Friday, which means time for our regularly scheduled reminder that society still hasn’t figured out how to stop hurting the people it claims to love.

Protective Mother to Sue NYPD After 2-Year-Old Son Murdered by His Father

An outraged mother whose toddler son was murdered this past May announced last Friday through her attorney that they would be suing the NYPD for wrongful death. 

Cierra Carroll called police last May to beg for their help after her 2-year-old son, Montrell Williams, had not come home after a scheduled custody visit with his father, 20-year-old Arius Williams. No Amber Alert was issued. Instead, NYPD classified Carroll’s call as a “custody dispute.” Over two weeks later, a family court judge issued an order for Arius to return his son, which he did not do. 

After making multiple calls to police to no avail, it was Carroll who found Arius in a homeless shelter weeks later. He threatened her with a knife before disclosing he had thrown their son over a bridge into the East River. Prosecutors allege the boy was alive when he went into the water, citing video police obtained of his murder at 11:57 p.m. on May 10. 

An estimated 989 children, at least, have been killed by a parent since 2008 in the context of divorce, separation or custody disputes. Still, many family court judges continue to force protective parents to co-parent with an ex-partner despite abuse, mental health concerns or other signs of risk to the child.  

“They [judges] are usually compelled by evidence that says this arrangement [co-parenting] in divorces, is better for the children, even though the research was looking at families where there was no violence,” says Eryn Jane Branch, program director with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, told DomesticShelters.org in 2016. 

Various pieces of legislation being passed in several, but not nearly enough states, say advocates, including the SAFE Child Act and the Keeping Children Safe From Family Violence Act, also known as Kayden’s Law, were designed to protect children from harmful family court practices, and call for everyone involved in custody cases to have education and training in spotting domestic violence and child abuse. 

New York Mayor Eric Adams said the police response to Montrell’s death was under review. Arius is being held in a New York jail without bail, charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. 

Source: CBSNews.com 

Sheriff’s Deputy Turns Home into Crime Scene

A Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed his girlfriend over the weekend before killing himself, leaving behind three young children that the couple shared. Jeremy Lyle, 44, is suspected of killing Mari Bonnici, 38, on Sunday night in her apartment. Before police arrived, Lyle reportedly went to another apartment and handed a baby off to a resident there, telling her to call 911 because the baby’s mother had been injured. Police discovered Bonnici’s body on a couch in her apartment before finding twin toddlers in a back bedroom. All three children were unharmed. Lyle, armed with a gun, was confronted by police in a parking lot around 7:30 p.m., a half hour after the murder, where SWAT negotiated with him until 2 a.m. before he took his own life. 

Local media reports that police believe the murder-suicide is related to domestic violence but said there had been no reports of domestic violence involving the couple. There are myriad reasons why survivors of domestic violence may not report or disclose the abuse to anyone, especially when their abusive partner is a police office. Abusers in law enforcement have been known to use their positions of power to intimidate, threaten and control their victims, saying that no one will believe the survivor if they come forward. 

Carmen Pitre, executive director of the Sojourner Family Peace Center, the largest nonprofit provider of domestic violence support services in Wisconsin, says she and other advocates are particularly concerned about cases where police officers are found to be the abusers for several reasons. 

“They can legally carry a firearm. They can use their power to actively harass and isolate victims. They can influence other officers in how they report and investigate. Officers who abuse use what they have. We consider these critical cases.”

While abusers almost always escalate, survivors may minimize their escalation out of fear, denial or shame, believing that someone who once claimed to love them would never murder them. Unfortunately, The presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent. Signs of escalation can include:

• Perceived loss of control over the victim through separation, divorce or the victim leaving
• Extreme jealousy
• An escalation of abuse
• Abuse that occurs in a public place
• Suicide or homicidal threats, and plans to carry out either
• Access to a weapon, especially a gun
• Stalking
• A history of mental health problems
• Substance abuse
• A history of sexual abuse of the victim or of children
• Violation of a protective order

Source: NBCBayArea.com

Woman Charged with Attempted Murder After Shooting Stalker

Twenty-three-year-old Trinity Christenson of Spokane was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree attempted murder, a month after she admitted to shooting and injuring Coal Strode. According to Christenson’s friends, the 27-year-old man frequently harassed the woman, writing her letters about a fictional wedding he had planned for them. Christenson says he would “pop up” everywhere she goes, and she was in fear of him. She shot Strode in the neck, which left him paralyzed.

It's unclear if the two had any kind of relationship prior to Strode’s stalking, or if Christenson had reported his stalking previously. However, police report they recovered a notebook of the man’s that revealed “an unhealthy obsession” with Christenson.

It’s estimated that at least 7.5 million individuals in the U.S. are survivors of stalking every year, the majority of whom are women. Half of all stalking survivors were under the age of 25 when the stalking began. While stalking often takes the forms of unwanted communications, following a victim, or tracking a victim’s activity online, stalkers often escalate to in-person violence. An estimated 76 percent of female homicide victims had been stalked by the person who killed them. Yet, stalking is often an underreported crime, with many victims afraid police won’t believe them or that the stalking is not severe enough to warrant an arrest. Only 54 precent of stalking victims who were murdered reported their stalkers to police before they died. 

For more information on steps to take if someone is following, harassing or monitoring you, read, “If You’re Being Stalked.” 

Source: Spokesman.com