Another Woman Has Been Killed in a Shooting Spree That Started with Domestic Violence

[Content Note: Domestic violence; guns; death.]

I have written many, many times about the link between domestic violence and mass shootings—most recently last month. Today, it grieves me to report that there has been another shooting in which a woman was killed, and five others injured, three critically, in a shooting incident which began with domestic violence.

The victims' names have not yet been made public. My condolences to the woman's family, friends, colleagues, and community, and my thoughts are with the people who survived, but with serious injuries.

The shooting happened in Sanford, Florida, which is the town in which Trayvon Martin was killed and where the police declined to arrest George Zimmerman until there was a national outcry about their indifference.

I have relentlessly argued the point that authorities must treat domestic violence as possible indicator for mass violence, as it has repeatedly been found to be—and, to that point, police interacted with the woman who was killed and the man who killed her twice today before the shooting.

Detectives describe Monday's violence as a series of escalations, beginning with a domestic dispute between Cashe and his girlfriend at her home shortly after 6 a.m.

That fight followed two previous verbal arguments between the couple that were so intense police were called to intervene.

A Sanford officer had to separate the couple at a gas station just a few hours before the shooting, according to authorities. Then, not even an hour later, police received a second call about the quarreling couple.

This time, officers learned they were arguing over personal possessions.

An officer was dispatched to the girlfriend's home, where he learned from a third party that Cashe had a gun. Not seeing one, the officer separated the couple, telling Cashe to go home.

But police say he did not.

No, he did not "go home." Instead, he killed his girlfriend, critically injured her father and her two sons, and injured two other people, including a girl who was waiting for her school bus.

No one who has a history of domestic violence (or related misogynistic harassment) should be allowed to own a gun. No one.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) March 27, 2017

There was, by the way, one presidential candidate in the last election who agreed with that statement; whose gun reform proposal included the introduction of legislation prohibiting "all people with histories of domestic abuse from buying or possessing guns, since current laws don't apply to people in dating relationships or convicted stalkers."

But the country took a hard pass and went with the guy who has himself been accused of domestic violence.