Domestic Murder Victims Are Dying in Dallas Without So Much as a Cry for Help

Brandon Clyde King had abused women before. But last week, police say, that abuse turned deadly. Police records say King brutally beat his girlfriend, 30-year-old Mia Doucet. Their bedroom in east Oak Cliff was covered in blood when officers arrived, and she died at the hospital. King, 32, was arrested on a murder charge in the Oct. 7 slaying. Advocates for ending domestic violence say Doucet's slaying was preventable, like many other abuse victims who died at the hands of their partners. It's unclear whether Doucet had called the police before she was killed. But King was sentenced to 87 days in jail for assaulting his ex-wife in 2013. Jail records show he has two family violence cases pending. A Dallas County report released Tuesday shows how few victims of domestic abuse sought help before they were killed. The report took an exhaustive look at every detail in 76 domestic violence slayings over five years."If a man hits you, he's not a man," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told a group of high school girls at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting after the report was presented. "He's a little punk, and you need to get away from him."In addition to the 76 men and women who were slain by their partners, 15 other family members and friends were killed in those crimes — like the seven bystanders slain when a gunman opened fire at his estranged wife's Cowboys watch party in Plano last month.It echoes a statewide report on women killed by domestic violence that was compiled by the Texas Council on Family Violence. Last year alone, 146 women in Texas were killed by their intimate partners, and 24 others were killed alongside those women. Four bystanders were injured. In those slayings, 183 children lost a parent. "It is statistically impossible for someone to not know anyone who has been affected by domestic violence," said Gloria Terry, chief executive officer of the Texas Council on Family Violence.   Continue reading...