Topeka ? The shooting deaths of a woman and her two daughters this weekend have prompted a call for better protections for victims of domestic violence.

The Kansas Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence issued a news release asking “all communities to look inward and assess what they can do to create safer and more immediate responses for battered women and their children.”

The statement was issued after James Kraig Kahler, 46, was arrested in connection with the deaths of his wife, Karen, 44, and their daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16.

He also is accused of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of his wife’s 89-year-old grandmother, Dorothy Wight, in whose Burlingame home the bodies were discovered Saturday night.

Karen Kahler had filed for divorce and filed a protection order against her husband.

Court records show that James Kahler was scheduled to go to trial today in Columbia, Mo., on a domestic assault charge that stemmed from an altercation with his wife in March.