SAN ANTONIO — Judicial and nonprofit leaders are stressing the importance of seeking help for those struggling with domestic violence following a string of recent shootings in San Antonio.
Mary Garr, president and CEO of Family Service, says helping to break the stigma surrounding asking for assistance continues to be a prominent mission of the nonprofit that’s been helping to strengthen individuals and communities since the early 1900s.
Family Service provides free counseling sessions ranging from individual to group programs. The organization aids domestic violence victims and those who cause harm.
“Communication is so very important," Garr said. "Being able to feel comfortable opening up and talking with each other, being able to listen to and validate each other’s feelings. If you are somebody that might become a person who could cause harm against your partner, understand yourself and what could be causing that trigger as your emotions start to rise.”
Garr noted it’s vital to address the root of domestic violence, which often begins at a young age. She said it’s also important for victims to establish a plan.
“What can we do to break those what we see are too often intergenerational cycles so that what you experience as a child doesn’t carry on to your own children,” Garr said. “Make sure that you’ve got a personal safety. In there, have your identification, have funds or access to funds out there, have a contact list.”
Last Friday, San Antonio police responded to the Palo Alto Apartments where a woman who had called 911 saying she been shot, was found dead alongside a man. Two unharmed children were found locked up in the apartment unit’s room and are now in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Police determined the 20-year-old man shot and killed the 20-year-old woman before turning the gun on himself.
On Tuesday, police responded to the Stone Oak-area home and discovered two people had been shot. A 46-year-old man was found dead with a gunshot wound while his 23-year-old daughter was shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition. The 45-year-old mother and wife was able to escape uninjured, according to police.
And, in late January, San Antonio police arrested a 44-year-old man who’s accused of shooting and killing his wife at the Oak Creek Apartments on the northwest side. Police say the man was seen by neighbors acting erratic outside the apartment while covered in his wife’s blood. He now faces a murder charge.
The tools available
District Court Judge Ron Rangel, a member of the Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence, said the group has been instrumental in developing new tools such as the 24-hour Navigation line.
“For folks in law enforcement to be able to figure out how lethal certain calls are, how best to handle calls that often deal with not only intense emotions that we find in domestic calls but sometimes we’re dealing with mental health diagnosis,” Rangel said. “We’re developing training programs to make sure that those responses are appropriate depending on when the calls come in."
The Texas Council on Family Violence reported 216 Texans were killed by their intimate partners in 2022, with a majority of those deaths linked to a firearm.
Rangel noted one of the challenges on the judicial side has been implementing a firearm transfer process to ensure alleged abusers, including convicted felons, don’t have access to guns.
“The law says that those individuals that are accused and charged of domestic violence at certain times are not able to possess a firearm,” Rangel said. “We started a process and started to remove that, started to educate some of the judges on the criminal defense side of the bar as to how we can do that. I think it’s been pretty successful at this point.”
Numbers to remember
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-723
- 1-800-787-3224 for the deaf
- Family Violence Prevention Services: 210-773-8810
- Bexar County Family Justice Center: 210-631-0100
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