Three fathers killed their families this week as domestic violence deaths remain high
In the first two days of June, authorities said, three fathers killed their children and the mothers who raised them. Two used guns. One used a knife. Of the thirteen victims, the youngest was three.
Officials cast the mass killings in Iowa, New York and Florida as an act of evil, the worst of the worst, and an unimaginable tragedy, but Doreen Dodgen-Magee thought of another word: preventable.
For the past three decades, the 60-year-old psychologist has campaigned to prevent domestic violence by telling the story about the day her brother-in-law shot his wife and three daughters. In her view, the country hasnt done nearly enough to curb what she calls a public health crisis.
Since a pandemic spike, homicides of all kinds have plummeted except for domestic violence deaths. They have stayed persistently high, The Washington Post found. Attacks in which someone kills four or more relatives have risen this year from a 20-year low, with more incidents in the first half of 2026 than all of last year, according to data from Northeastern University.
https://wapo.st/4g4tKtb
Scrivener7
(60,205 posts)It turned my stomach when they did a joint funeral and burial for both of them.
I suspect the local church recommended it to the poor children (who were in another part of the house when it happened.)
Jilly_in_VA
(14,693 posts)It's always a "mental illness" excuse. However, if these mentally ill men hadn't had such easy access to GUNS, maybe such tragedies wouldn't have occurred. Wanna think about that for a minute, Amurrica?
Deuxcents
(27,918 posts)Since they chose to kill the mothers and then the babies. Its the women who are not falling in line
bucolic_frolic
(56,100 posts)Highly significant in my view. It sounds to me like these deeply troubled people are disconnecting from external forces that stir their hatred and emotions, and instead are focusing on their internal conflicts which arise from their distorted upbringings and are taking it out (sadly, obviously) on those closest to them. Keeping abuse within the house so to speak. Amateur psych but that's my suspicion.
Beartracks
(14,683 posts)But if there was no mention of the resident status of these men on the news, then they were homegrown Americans -- the kind of demographic for which heinous acts are to be treated like unusual outliers.
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AverageOldGuy
(4,264 posts). . . our new Democratic controlled General Assembly and Democratic governor passed and signed a bill outlawing the sale of assualt-type weapons, large capacity magazines, ghost guns, parts, and the like. Goes into effect on July 1.
Gun stores can't keep AR-15s and all the banned stuff in stock -- "flying off the shelves."
I'm bettiing on a rash of domestic murders starting in a few months.