Sunday, October 2, 2011

DV Awareness Month begins with fatality

purple ribbonOctober is Domestic Violence Awareness Month 

Domestic Violence is often thought of as being limited to intimate partner relationships. But the legal definition encompasses all relationships where one family member assaults another.


This past weekend I had the honor of commemorating those who lost their lives in Orange County by reading their names at the DV Task Force's event at Lake Eola. They are listed here.

If you review the names, you'll notice that of the 19 fatalities from October 2010 through September 2011, there were 6 children. 

We celebrate that the total number of DV deaths in Orange County dropped from 28 in the previous year to 19. But children are comprising a greater percentage of fatalities, rising from 14% to 32%.

And on the first day of DV Awareness Month, a former law enforcement officer, Timothy Allen Davis Sr,  shot and killed his adult son in an argument over his grandchild just a few hours after our event.

So the Orange County fatality list has a new name for next year's DV Task Force walk. And another family has forever been changed by domestic violence.

That should sadden us all. 

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