Report: Domestic violence incidents up 13 percent in Douglas County last year

In this file photo from Aug. 13, 2017, a Douglas County Sheriff's Office blocks North 1050 Road after a shooting was reported in the 1000 block of East 900 Road.

When Erin Berg’s ex-boyfriend fatally shot her along a rural Lawrence road in 2017, the 36-year-old woman became a victim of the ultimate category of domestic violence: homicide.

Peter Sander, 41, went on to also shoot and kill their 3-year-old daughter, Mazey Berg, before killing himself.

photo by: Contributed Photo

Erin Berg and her daughter, Mazey Berg, 3, were fatally shot by Peter Sander, Berg’s ex-boyfriend and Mazey’s father, in 2017. Berg’s family, in an obituary for her and Mazey, called their deaths “a senseless act of domestic violence.”

Including this Douglas County case, domestic violence homicides went up more than 20 percent statewide in 2017, according to a new report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Overall domestic violence incidents went down slightly statewide in 2017, but not in Douglas County. Here they went up almost 13 percent, according to the KBI’s 2017 Kansas Domestic Violence, Stalking and Rape Report released this month.

Douglas County reported 1,000 domestic violence incidents in 2017. Most of those, 935, were handled by the Lawrence Police Department.

That’s up 12.8 percent from 2016, when the county had 886 domestic violence incidents reported. Again, the majority, 820, were handled by Lawrence police.

From 2015 to 2016, domestic violence incidents also increased, but not as steeply. In 2015, there were 825 total incidents, 763 of which were reported to Lawrence police.

Requests for restraining orders in Douglas County also went up in 2017, according to the KBI’s report.

In 2017, there were 367 protection from abuse filings, compared with 348 in 2016. In 2015, there were 345.

Protection from stalking filings fell dramatically from 2015 to 2016, then rose dramatically again from 2016 to 2017. There were 237 protection from stalking filings in Douglas County in 2015, but that number fell to just 22 in 2016. The number of filings then rebounded in 2017, to 281. It’s not clear from the report what caused the dramatic fall and rise.

Domestic violence can be defined as any verbal or physical abuse, ranging from simple assault to murder, the KBI report notes. It’s between victims and offenders who are or have been involved in a dating relationship, or between family or household members.

Over the years, the victim, offender and incident profiles for domestic violence haven’t changed drastically.

“Still, the average victim is a white female between the ages of 20 and 29,” according to the report. “The average offender is a white male between the ages of 20 and 34 and is most often the spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or former boyfriend/girlfriend of the victim. Saturdays and Sundays are the two days when domestic violence incidents are most likely to occur. Most incidents occur between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and noon or between 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.”

The KBI said that 38 homicides related to domestic violence occurred in 2017, representing the most domestic violence homicides in the past 20 years.

The Nov. 3, 2017, shooting death of 34-year-old Eudora resident Joel Wales in a rural Lawrence house that was then set on fire also would match the KBI’s description of domestic violence, if prosecutors’ allegations are true. However, Wales’ death is not listed among the 38 in the KBI’s report of domestic violence homicides occurring in 2017. Tria L. Evans, 39, the mother of Wales’ child, was not arrested and charged until 2018.

Berg’s family, in an obituary for her and Mazey, called their deaths “a senseless act of domestic violence.”

On the afternoon of Aug. 13, 2017, deputies were dispatched to a shooting in the 1000 block of East 900 Road. Berg had been shot several times, in the driveway of a house she had no affiliation with.

Investigators determined that Sander shot Berg, then continued driving Berg’s car with Mazey in it to the Baker Wetlands, where he shot the child and then himself.

Sander had never before physically abused Berg or Mazey but had been mentally and emotionally abusive and controlling, Berg’s mother previously told the Journal-World.

Berg had moved from Lawrence to Maryville, Mo., earlier that summer. She was in Lawrence that day dropping off Mazey to spend the week with her father.


Domestic violence in Douglas County

The following statistics are the number of domestic violence incidents reported to law enforcement agencies in Douglas County in 2017.

Lawrence Police Department — 935

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office — 28

Baldwin City Police Department — 18

Eudora Police Department — 12

University of Kansas Office of Public Safety — 7

Total — 1,000

Source: KBI, 2017 Kansas Domestic Violence, Stalking and Rape Report

Contact Journal-World public safety reporter Sara Shepherd

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