‘We are here to save lives’
A domestic violence-related homicide in Bartlett on Friday left Sheila Scott dead.
A double domestic violence-related homicide in Frayser in July left Natausha Gibbs and Izeal Jones Jr. dead.
Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office hope a new program will help reduce these murders.
Robert Massengill, 73, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Scott, who had been living in his house for three months. Markese Gibbs, 38, was arrested in Milwaukee in the killing of his wife, Natausha Gibbs, and Jones.
Memphis police started the Lethality Assessment Program, or LAP, in March and the Shelby County Sheriff ’s Office started it last October.
Under the program, law enforcement responding to a domestic violence incident involving intimate partners are required to ask victims 11 questions that require a yes or no answer.
If, based on the answers, a person is determined to be at risk, the officer — while still on the scene — will call the Family Safety Center of Memphis. A victim’s advocate with the center will then talk to the person about several options, including leaving. Questions officers ask include: “Do you think he or she might try to kill you?” “Does he or she have access to a weapon?” “Has he or she tried to kill himself or herself?” “Has he or she ever tried to choke you?” According to Smith, the last question matters because a large percentage of domestic violence abusers who end up killing their victims had subjected them to non-fatal strangulation in prior incidents.
In the first three weeks of May, the Family Safety Center received 261 LAP-related calls.
“It is very difficult for victims to take that ‘big step’ and leave an abusive intimate partner,” said Olliette Murry-Drobot, executive director of the Family Safety Center. “It is a complicated, emotionally charged situation.”
Murry-Drobot added: “LAP is a win-win for both the officer on the scene and the advocate on the phone, because the chance of either of them being successful is far greater when they work together in this manner.”
Memphis Police Major J.D. Smith, who is over the department’s domestic violence unit, said the program is in use at all of MPD’s nine precincts.
“I’ll say that the assessment program is one of the best tools we can use because more than likely at that time, the escalation of violence has gotten to the extreme where the next move is possibly going to result in a fatality,” Smith said. “It allows us to get hands on, early on, and that is key.”
He added: “We can’t force someone to seek help. I tell the officers not to get discouraged if the victim chooses to stay and ends up calling police again the following weekend. Our job is to continue reaching out. We are here to save lives.”
Murry-Drobot said often, domestic violence is not viewed in the same context as other violence in the community. She said that is frustrating for domestic violence advocates and law enforcement.
“Often times when you hear concerns about crime and public safety, it is often about gang violence and street violence,” Murry-Drobot said. “Domestic violence is often seen as a social issue and human services issue, and not seen as part of violence.
“When it comes to crime in Memphis and Shelby County, if you look at the pure numbers and really look at the aggravated assaults and simple assaults related to domestic violence, it would overwhelm the media at the number of sheer cases,” she said.
In 2016, 91 domestic violence-related deaths were reported in Tennessee. Of that number, 32 were in Memphis. In 2017, 12 domestic violence-related deaths were reported in the city, and this year there have been seven.
The nonprofit Washington-based Violence Policy Center released its annual study, which showed Tennessee ranked fourth among states in terms of women killed by men.
Tennessee has placed among the top 10 states in the Violence Policy Center’s study for the past eight years.
“With the LAP program, we are helping victims that otherwise would not have reached out to the Family Safety Center, so this has really broadened our impact,” Murry-Drobot said. “And we’ve heard from a lot of officers that they feel like they have an additional resource now, with the advocate working with them to help victims.”