SPEAK OUT!
Against Domestic Violence.
Break the Silence!
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXTENDS TO CHILDREN OF VICTIMS.
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY , Ala. (AP) A man fatally shot his three children and then took his own life in a Montgomery home Sunday night as law officers hunted for him on a domestic violence claim by his estranged wife, police said. Lt. Keith Barnett said Eric Robinson, 42, was found in the house where his wife, Brenda Robinson, lived with their three children. Robinson, who lived at a different address, fatally shot the children, Barnett said.
The three children a 4-year-old girl and boys aged 6 and 11 were found in Eric Robinson's car outside the house where the wife lived with her children and her mother. The police spokesman said there had been an "ongoing domestic violence relationship" and officers had been actively looking for Robinson after his wife signed a warrant Sunday afternoon accusing him of violating a protective order. The children were with Robinson for a normal visitation when his wife sought help and police began looking for him, Barnett said. "This involved multiple attempts to locate him at his residence," he said. After reports of gunshots at the wife's home at 9:53 p.m., police found Robinson inside the house with a fatal gunshot to the head. Officers searching for the children found them in the car with gunshot wounds to the head.
The 6-year-old boy was dead in the car and the other two children were taken to Jackson Hospital , where they were pronounced dead. "This is a horrific tragedy," said Barnett. Brenda Robinson told the Montgomery Advertiser that her husband came inside the house and shot himself in a hallway, outside the bathroom. She said she was in the bathroom and when Robinson killed himself she shouted "Where's my babies?" She told the newspaper that she jumped over the body of Eric Robinson and ran outside to the car where she found the children Ereal Robinson, 4, Ehren Robinson, 6, and Evin Robinson, 11. She said when she swung open the door to the car, Ehren fell into her arms. The other two children were in the back seat. All had gunshot wounds to the head.
Neighbors said the home belonged to the children's grandmother and that they had moved into it with their mother recently. The grandmother was also in the house when the shootings occurred. "It hurts my heart," said Sarah Graham, who lives across the street from the small red brick home in a lower income residential neighborhood. "If I can just cry it off I would feel better. I cannot imagine a person losing three children. That has to be the most horrible thing."
We at CWP Ministries, Inc. speak out against domestic violence.
A woman is physically abused every nine seconds in the United States
- 3 women are murdered by their intimate partners in the
United States every day The United States Department of Justice, 2001.)
- Each day in the United States, more than 3 children die as a result
of abuse at home (The United States Department of Health and
Human Services, 2001.)
This is a travesty. The church community must break the silence and speak out against this social ill. Our silence is consent!
Domestic Violence crosses
socio-economic & religious divides.
