By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist | February 14, 2010
LEOMINSTER - Alvin Notice has been watching the grim tally rise.
Since the start of the year, there have been domestic violence deaths in Westford, North Attleborough, Spencer, Fitchburg, Haverhill, and Shrewsbury. Women survived attempts in Westford, Leominster, and who knows how many other places.
We’ve been fighting this battle for decades, and still women are dying at the hands of men who are supposed to love them. All the public education campaigns and laws in the world are no match for men who treat women like they’re worthless pieces of property.
Every one of this year’s deaths has stung Notice.
“I know what it’s like to get that call,’’ he says.
His came a year ago today. His daughter, Tiana, 25, was living in Plainville, Conn., and hoping to become an attorney.
After James Carter, an ex-boyfriend, sent her ugly, threatening text messages, Tiana got a restraining order in January 2009. Her father worried, but Tiana said she had it under control. Besides, the police were on it.
But then she found her tires slashed. Alvin Notice - a tall, imposing man, and a deputy superintendent at MCI-Shirley - went to Connecticut and installed cameras outside Tiana’s apartment. He showed her how to escape if Carter snuck up on her in the parking lot. He told her neighbors to look out for her. He asked Tiana if she’d consider moving. She wouldn’t let Carter drive her away, she said.
A week later, Tiana sent a panicked text to her father: “Emergency!call me asap.’’ Carter was getting bolder, calling her office, leaving a note at her door. She went to two police stations that day to report him, and they said they’d investigate. She was afraid Carter would get to her before police got to him.
“What’s it going to take?’’ she asked her mother. “Does he have to kill me?’’
The next night, Feb. 14, Carter attacked Tiana outside her apartment, prosecutors say. She managed to call 911 and say her ex-boyfriend had stabbed her 20 times, that she was bleeding to death. She begged neighbors to call her parents. She asked God to forgive her sins and take her to heaven.
By the time Alvin got to the hospital, Tiana was dead.
“I wanted to see her for myself, to make sure it was her,’’ he says, sobbing in a Leominster cafe. “It could have been a mistake.’’
After he left the hospital that night, Alvin was angry. He was angry that Carter had been allowed to get anywhere near his daughter, that all the police officers who gave Tiana their cards did nothing to save her.
In statements after Carter was charged with murder, Plainville police said Carter hadn’t threatened Tiana’s life and that there had been no signs she was in imminent danger. Police from nearby Waterbury said they had searched for Carter to arrest him the day before Tiana was killed but couldn’t find him.
Instead of “doing something crazy’’ with his anger, Alvin threw himself into making his daughter’s death mean something.
He started the Tiana Notice Foundation, which installs cameras outside the homes of women who are afraid of their former partners. He has been pushing for a law allowing Connecticut judges to require some domestic abusers to wear GPS tracking devices, as they do in Massachusetts.
And he tells Tiana’s story to anybody who will listen, in high schools, colleges and, today, outside the Connecticut State Capitol. He hopes the men who hear it will realize how important it is to treat their partners with respect. He hopes the women will stand up to their boyfriends, and protect themselves.
But that’s just what Tiana did. She tried to protect herself. She did everything right.
She died anyway.
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. Her email address is abraham@globe.com
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