Article: Chicago shootings put focus on domestic violence in Wisconsin

BARRY ADAMS | 608-252-6148 | badams@madison.com | Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 5:48 pm

This story has been told before and it’s likely to be told again.

The shootings in Chicago on Wednesday of six people, four of whom died, allegedly by a family member from Madison, occurred about five months after two high-profile domestic violence cases here.

In December, Tyrone Adair, 38, shot and killed his two children and their mothers before killing himself, according to police. About three weeks prior to that case, Donte Beasley, 38, of Madison shot and wounded his girlfriend and their two children, according to prosecutors.

The Chicago shootings will be counted as Illinois statistics, but again shines the light on domestic violence in Wisconsin.

Dead are the suspect’s 19-year-old pregnant wife, seven month-old son and two nieces. The gunman also is accused of shooting and injuring his mother and a 13-year-old boy.

In 2009, sixty people in Wisconsin died in 47 domestic violence incidents, an increase of 30 percent when compared to 2008, according to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Seven of those deaths, which included suicides by perpetrators, occurred in Dane County.

Economics can play a role in domestic violence, but attitudes, cultural norms and values can perpetuate it, said Tony Gibart, policy coordinator with the coalition.

“The increase is pretty complex,” said Gibart. “That’s one of the reasons we need to address this problem, by working with men by changing the attitudes that are prevalent in our society.”

Women make up 84 percent of the victims of abuse between spouses and 86 percent of victims of violence between boyfriends and girlfriends, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In Dane County, about one-third of all arrests are related to domestic violence, according to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office.

Shannon Barry, executive director of Domestic Abuse Intervention Services, said there has been a decline in domestic violence reports over the first four months of this year but she fears that decline may be a result of fear of retribution, rather than a drop in violence.

“We typically experience a dip like that when there’s been a high-profile case,” Barry said. “These cases have a negative impact on everyone.”