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By the numbers from 2012-2014* 236,141 victims* 71.8 percent female* 28.2 percent male* 57 percent white* 42 percent black* 10 percent juveniles* 45.2 percent were boyfriend/girlfriend relationships* Among marrieds, victims were six times more likely to be abused by a spouse than by an ex-spouse* 48 percent of incidents were cleared by arrest* 270 of those battered became murder victimsSource: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
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Seconds to live: Shotgun attack survivor recalls deadly day
Holly Anderson says she is a survivor, not a victim.
The young woman also is brave – not only because she stared her estranged husband in the eyes as he leveled a shotgun at her in a parking lot, but also because she is willing later to talk about it and in doing so, help others in similar situations to stand up and take action to get out of abusive relationships.
Anderson was the subject Saturday of a front-page story by Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Shelly Bradbury. The story recounted the young woman’s comeback and recuperation after Jeffery Held fired a shotgun at her and then turned the gun, fatally, on himself at Ooltewah Crossing near a shop where Anderson worked.
In November, Anderson had moved out of the house she’d shared with Held, a heavy drinker, and filed for divorce after lesser attacks at home. Since then, he had harassed, stalked and called her nonstop, she told the reporter. On the day of the shooting, April 26, Anderson had answered his request to meet him outside a store and talk. She was hoping he was going to sign the divorce papers. She told co-workers that if she didn’t come back within five minutes to call her back in, giving her a reason to end the talk. He didn’t give her that much time.
Domestic violence is far more prevalent than statistics suggest – primarily because it usually goes unreported. Even with the under-reporting, however, a three-year span between 2012 and 2014 (the most recently available data) tallied more than 236,000 people who did report (sometimes more than once) being victims of domestic violence at the hands of their spouses, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
That’s why Chattanooga city leaders and police – especially Mayor Andy Berke and Police Chief Fred Fletcher – should be congratulated for a citywide effort to both raise awareness and bring new tools to combat the problem. This week, the Chattanooga Police Department’s new special victims unit set up shop with six detectives to investigate sex crimes and domestic violence. Until now, sex crimes would end up in several different departments from major crimes to the juvenile division, depending on the circumstances. Domestic violence cases often were handled with just one responding officer’s visit, then be dropped – often with the victim’s frightful acquiescence.
Chief Fletcher and Mayor Berke, in creating the new unit, have said police will be more proactive with domestic violence complaints, making it clear to aggressors that law enforcers will be watching them closely – even checking up on them – rather than simply be waiting for the next call.
In this spring alone, the Chattanooga area had four fatal or near-fatal instances of domestic violence.
A man shot and killed his estranged lover, his son and himself at a gas station in Varnell, Ga., just three days before Held shot Anderson. On May 8, a Hixson man killed his long-time girlfriend and then himself in their home. On Saturday, police charged a 50-year-old man with attempted first-degree murder in connection with the life-threatening battering of his 54-year-old sister at a home in the Highway 58 area.
Anderson was lucky. She lived. And she has picked up the challenge banner.
The rest is up to police, and to the rest of us – including those being abused.
It’s time to make a stand against domestic violence.