FW Star-Telegram: 2020 was deadliest year in tarrant county

By Jessika Harkay

An annual report from Tarrant County emergency domestic violence shelter SafeHaven and its partners concluded that 2020 was the deadliest and worst year for victims of intimate partner violence since at least 2016.

The 2020 Fatality Report, which was released in October in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, found throughout the coronavirus pandemic and its stress and isolation, there’s been a 112% increase in murders caused by an intimate partner.

“Thanks to the pandemic, basically every client that we see is in a current crisis,” President and CEO of SafeHaven Kathryn Jacob said, defining a current crisis as a recent incident with an abuser within the last 30 days. “[Beforehand,] perhaps your final incident with your abuser was years ago, or you’re dealing with an ongoing custody issue or something like that. That’s not really our situation anymore.”

Looking into 28 domestic violence deaths in Tarrant County throughout 2020, the organization narrowed 17 deaths to be classified as intimate partner homicides — defined as “an ongoing pattern of abusive behavior that can include physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, or psychological aggression by a former or current intimate partner that is motivated by the offender’s desire for power and control over the victim, where the relationship ends in homicide.”

Statewide, there were over 220 intimate partner homicides, with 17 in Tarrant County, the highest figure since 2016, when the county recorded 16 homicides. Nearly 60% of the 2020 murders occurred in Fort Worth, with the other deaths in Haslet, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Keller and Mansfield, according to the report.

Most recently, court records showed that two Fort Worth residents who died in a murder-suicide Oct. 27 previously were married before filing for divorce in 2009. It’s unclear whether the couple had gotten back together, as the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office listed the man and woman’s address at the same location.

The Star-Telegram did not receive a response from family regarding the relationship between the two. Tarrant County court records don’t show a history of reported abuse before the man fatally shot the woman and killed himself.

“Domestic violence is the most under-reported crime,” Jacob said. “We know that the dynamics of domestic violence are that it could take six to nine attempts for a victim to permanently exit a relationship.”

Jacob said that in her seven years at the emergency shelter, she’s seen victims leave a domestic violence situation and return years later.

“About 50% of clients that we serve both on the victim’s side and on the offender’s side are still in a relationship,” she said. “A lot of things can trigger violence, but at the end of the day the offender is the one who’s responsible for that, not abuse, not mental illness, not anger issues, not unemployment. It’s an offender’s desire for power and control which drives domestic violence.”

Additional statistics in the report include that of the 17 intimate partner homicides, 12 were in dating relationships and five were married, and that “the majority of the relationships had ended prior to the homicide,” with the average victim and offender age ranging from 41 to 65 years old.

Similar to the murder-suicide on Oct. 27, “more than 50% of the offenders were known to own a gun,” the report said. “The presence of a gun in a domestic violence relationship increases the level of danger for a victim.”

Seven murders presumed to be related to domestic violence have been reported in Tarrant County this year.

Although Jacob said that the county’s domestic violence homicide rate has been lower so far in 2021, SafeHaven’s two shelters, in Fort Worth and Arlington, have reached capacity, filling over 160 beds.

And the shelters are seeing a record number of high-risk cases. About 80% of clients in the shelters have previously been strangled by their partners.

“Women who experience strangulation at the hands of their abuser are 700 times more likely to be strangled a second time and 800 times more likely to die at the hands of that offender,” a SafeHaven news release said.

The nonprofit organization hopes through publishing its annual report, which began last year, it can provide more information to local residents, which can lead to better decisions.

“We couldn’t have had these conversations five years ago, and our community is more and more on the same bus going in the same direction,” Jacob said. “I believe victims are people and they deserve a life free of violence. So everyone in this community needs to know that resources exist to assist this population.”

The annual Fatality Report for 2021 will be released next fall.

Anyone who is a victim, or knows a victim of domestic violence, can reach out to SafeHaven’s hotline at 1-877-701-7233.