‘All too common’
Supporters of gun bill cite domestic violence killing of Norwalk librarian
NORWALK — Restricting access to guns results in less violence and fewer homicides, officials and advocates noted Thursday in a rose garden named for a local librarian killed by her husband in a murder-suicide.
But as one of the couple’s sons noted prior to an event aimed at highlighting legislation proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont, so would better enforcement and coordination of laws already on the books.
“I think drawing attention to the issue is obviously very important. But I think we have lots of systems, especially in a state like Connecticut, given its history of gunrelated crimes – databases and registries of who owns guns and guns they have – and we also have records of who’s going through active litigation or divorce, as well as requests for restraining orders or anything like that,” said Akshat Misra, whose mother, Divya Misra, was killed in the family’s Chatham Drive home May 16, 2021.
Akshat said his mother had filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against her husband, Rajneesh Misra, who killed himself after murdering his wife. He said his father had obtained a concealed carry permit in 2006 and bought a gun months prior to the homicide.
“I really feel like there’s a disconnect between these systems, and if there was a connection that existed, perhaps a red flag would be raised when my mother requested both the divorce and the restraining order,” Akshat said. “That should have set off a red flag, because our father never told us that he purchased the weapon. At least us having that knowledge would have helped us make a lot different decisions.”
On Thursday Lt. Gov Susan Bysiewicz, Mayor Harry Rilling, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and other officials gathered in a rose garden named for Divya Misra outside Norwalk Public Library, where she worked for 17 years, to highlight provisions of the governor’s proposed legislation they said would save lives, especially in cases of domestic violence.
“Domestic violence and access to guns is a lethal combination for women and for families,” Bysiewicz said, noting a domestic abuser with access to a firearm is five times more likely to kill.
The proposed legislation would, among other provisions, impose a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases and prohibit anyone convicted of a domestic violence offense from holding a state gun permit.
Rilling, a former police chief, said that the state “already has the strongest gun bill in the entire country. But sometimes it’s just not enough and we have to do a little bit more.”
Himes noted the passage of the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 that includes $750 million available to states to implement crisis intervention programs and red flag laws “to reduce the mayhem and violence in our society.”
The congressman said cases like Divya Misra’s are “all too common,” and her sons, who spoke at the event in support of the proposed gun bill, agreed.
“The outpouring of love for my mother is touching and special, but her death was unfortunately not an isolated incident,” Akshat Misra said.
Bharat Misra said his mother “loved deeply and was deeply loved in return,” but also noted that she was very strong.
“She was loving, she was kind, she was strong, and it still happened to her,” he said, recalling a story of how his mother had helped an uncle start a multi-million dollar business and accepted nothing in return. “We just can’t afford to lose more people like that.”
Answering a question about Milford homicide victim Julie Minogue, the lieutenant governor noted other possible laws in addition to the governor’s gun bill, including proposed legislation from state Sen. Mae Flexer intended to reduce intimate partner violence and homicides.
Minogue, a mother of three, was killed in December five days after obtaining a restraining order against Ewen Dewitt, the man now accused murdering her with an ax. The suspect had also been arrested in 2019 for drunkenly throwing a playpen at Minogue’s head when she was holding the couple’s six-week-old son. The charges were still pending – and a partial protective order was in place – at the time of the killing.
“One of the things legislators are looking at is a sort of one-stop shop program like New York has, where you have social workers, court personnel,
law enforcement, and family law advocates all in the same place so that information gets passed to everyone and it’s much
more seamless,” Bysiewicz said.
Danielle Pollack, policy manager at the National Family Violence Law Center
based at George Washington University School of Law, said that “anything that coordinates information sharing is a
good idea.”
“Historically, these systems have been built to work in a vacuum, unfortunately,” she said.
At the same time, she noted that in Minogue’s case, her alleged killer had visitation rights through the state’s family court despite the pending domestic violence charges and a 2021 North Carolina arrest for allegedly drunkenly assaulting a female paramedic. Until she obtained a restraining order by citing harassing texts Dewitt had sent her, Minogue was the supervisor of his visits with his son.
“Private custody courts are the biggest open gap to allow abusers to have access to victims,” Pollack said, adding that states should at a minimum invest in more professionally supervised visitation centers for high-risk cases like Minogue’s.
“States are totally dropping the ball doing what they need to do for domestic violence victims by leaving them with no professional supervision options,” she said.