Man Killed in Violent Altercation

A Spalding County woman was forced to stab her husband in self-defense because he was strangling their son.

No charges are expected against a Spalding County woman who stabbed and killed her husband Sunday night as he was attempting to choke the couple's son, police said.
Investigators believe the incident began with a physical fight between Ricky Evans, 39, and 37-year-old Schmanthe Evans, said Capt. Tony Ranieri with the Spalding County Sheriff's Office. After Ricky Evans struck his wife, the couple's son, Reauarius Evans, got involved, Ranieri said.

Reauarius Evans called 911 to report the incident, and his mother called two minutes later to report the same incident, Ranieri said. Deputies found Ricky Evans dead inside the front door of the Highfalls Road home, he said. Reauarius Evans sustained a severe cut to his hand and was transported by ambulance to Spalding Regional Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Investigators believe the woman acted to protect her son's life, and charges are not expected to be filed, Ranieri said.

"This is a very tragic incident that took place and the only findings the investigators could determine were that Schmanthe Evans was trying to protect her son," Ranieri said in a statement Monday night.

Family members told deputies the couple had fought constantly over the years and that Ricky Evans had a history of violence.

It is unfortunate that many women are forced to take the life of another person to keep themselves safe. Here in DeKalb County, two women were tried in 2010 for killing a spouse who had a history of abuse against them. Thankfully, both of them escaped spending the rest of their lives in prison, but their lives were changed forever. It is vital that we provide women with whatever supports we can to help them end abusive relationships before they have to take such drastic measures.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Evans family.

Soldier Stabbing May Have Been Self-Defense

Online Athens reports that the solider killed at Fort Stewart may have been stabbed in self-defense.

Army investigators suspect a slain Fort Stewart soldier found bleeding outside his barracks may have been stabbed in a domestic fight in which he was the aggressor, a spokesman for the Georgia Army post said Wednesday.

Fort Stewart officials identified the slain soldier as Alante L. Whiting, 22, of Westland, Mich.

Whiting, an intelligence analyst who joined the Army in 2008, had just returned from a yearlong deployment to Iraq about 18 hours before he was killed Dec. 8.

It is incredibly tragic that this young man was killed within a day of returning from war. It is equally tragic that, if he was indeed killed in self-defense, that one of his first acts upon returning from war was to initiate violence against an intimate partner. It is incredibly important that our military families receive the help that they need as they deal with the trauma of service and of separation. It is equally important that our military take domestic violence seriously and provide protections both to soldiers and to spouses if violence is suspected inside the home.

About.com provides information and resources for those in military households who are experiencing abuse. Our thoughts and prayers are with this family.

The Effects of Wrongful Arrest

The Albany Herald provided coverage this week of a Domestic Violence Awareness Month event hosted by a sister DV agency in Georgia called Liberty House. The discussion focused on an extremely important topic: the number of women whose lives are negatively impacted by calling the police because they are wrongfully arrested for using violence in self-defense.

It bothers domestic-violence survivors that victims have to fear being jailed for protecting themselves.

“My husband put a .357 Magnum to my head, and he beat me with a belt,” said Karen Lawrence, an Albany resident. “But if I hit him and gave him a scratch, he would just say go ahead and call the police. They’ll put us both in jail.”

Lawrence spoke from the audience at a Liberty House-sponsored discussion on domestic violence labeled “The Face of Domestic Violence” Thursday at Darton College.

Her experience also touched on Tuesday’s gunshot killing of Christopher Donaldson by his ex-wife Marlina Hamilton, Lawrence said.

“If the man leaves when the police were there and then he comes back, everyone I know in that situation knows that the man comes back much more mad,” Lawrence said. “Any woman will tell you that.

He is mad you called the police and he is mad you made him leave.”

Women's Resource Center offers a twice-monthly class that provides "anger management" for women who have been arrested for domestic violence. What we have observed in this class is that most of the women were arrested for using violence in self-defense. Other women were arrested for provoking a fight that they knew was coming because he had a history of using violence against her and she was tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Many of the women could benefit from anger management instruction, but most need domestic violence counseling and services.

The effects of these arrests cannot be understated. Many women lose their jobs, some lose their housing or public benefits, and some lose their children to their batterers or to state custody. These women also learn very quickly not to call the police ever again, meaning that they also lose the protections of the legal system. These wrongful arrests allow her to keep being victimized and are more likely to keep her in the relationship than to help her escape from it. This is an important discussion that many organizations are afraid to have and we applaud Liberty House and the Albany Herald for talking about this issue.