Editorial: Violent death points to a scourge in Texas
Published 8:47 am Tuesday, March 12, 2019
The death was new, the story too familiar.
Port Arthur police believe Aletha Gonzalez met her end near midnight Feb. 24 at the hands of Daniel Shackelford, 34, with whom she’d shared a home in Port Acres. Police had been there before but not for a while.
On the night of Feb. 24, Shackelford called police there with an unusual story of finding his domestic partner on the floor with a television set on her. Later, he changed his story.
Investigation told a different story, too: Her body showed multiple bruises to her face, neck, arms and an autopsy revealed blunt force trauma to her head, which included a large hemorrhage to the right side. Authorities said she was assaulted.
That’s why police were leading Shackelford through the back door of the downtown police station Thursday evening to a waiting SUV, spiriting him away to the Jefferson County jail after charging him with first-degree murder. Bond was set at $500,000. It’s hard to hide the results of domestic abuse.
“Domestic violence is difficult to stop,” said police department spokesman Mike Hebert. Incidents are difficult to predict and most take place in private.
Domestic violence victims can seek help through police, who also distribute materials about domestic abuse to suspected victims and others. Sometimes it helps; other times, victims end up on the floor of their homes, with abusers talking nonsense about televisions landing on top of their victims.
The state’s Department of Public Safety said there were more than 214,000 domestic violence victims in Texas in 2016: Women and men, wives, girlfriends and more. It needs to stop … fast.
“We continue to underestimate the reach and devastation of domestic violence,” said Gloria Aguilera Terry, chief executive of the Texas Council on Family Violence, in a 2017 news story. Underestimate at your peril.
Wholesale slaughter at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs in November 2017 changed a lot of minds about domestic abuse and family violence. It’s no private matter. At the church, a shooter with a long history of domestic abuse killed 26 people and wounded 20 others; he’d threatened before to shoot family members. The damage that domestic abuse can impose on others can reach far beyond any single residence.
Texas law says domestic violence charges can be brought against an abuser for harm against a broad range of family members or domestic partners, including someone with whom the accused shares a child; a spouse or former spouse; foster child or foster parent; any family member by marriage, blood or adoption; a child or the child of a former spouse or partner.
The state must be relentless in fighting this scourge with counseling and with harsh penalties. Stakes are steep. Aletha Gonzalez might tell you, if she could.