OLYMPIA, WA – Twenty percent of all murders in Washington State are the result of domestic violence. A quarter of rapes and more than half of simple assaults are as well. Washington State legislators held a press conference today at the State Capitol to discuss domestic violence proposals under consideration by the 2023 Legislature.
Senator Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond) says Black, Indigenous, and LatinX women are at a higher risk for intimate partner-related violence; and disparities in homicide rates are especially pronounced among women between 18 and 29 years of age.
In addition, nearly 60% of intimate partner-related violence involves firearms; and women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries.
Colleen McIngalls, Director of Victim Services with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, says they strongly support critical funding to stabilize victim services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Representative Amy Walen (D-Kirkland) says everyone has heard of domestic violence cases in their hometown or in the news, and each of us has been affected by it whether we know it or not because it can often be difficult to spot.
Walen says the baby that the couple had together witnessed his mother’s murder. She adds that lawmakers owe it to their communities, families, and the children who watch what adults do and learn from them.
House Bill 1715 challenges the premise that victims of domestic violence should be sent into hiding, fleeing for their lives, while the justice system does very little to hold their abusers accountable, according to Representative Lauren Davis (D-Shoreline).
Co-sponsor of HB 1715, Representative Gina Mosbrucker (R-Goldendale), says someone dies due to domestic violence homicide every nine seconds.
Representative My-Linh Thai (D-Bellevue) is the main sponsor of House Bill 1562, which would reduce the risks of lethality and other harm associated with gun violence, gender-based violence, and other types of violence. She says it would create barriers between those who abuse and potentially kill their loved ones and their victims.
Representative Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow) says Native American women are one of the largest populations of women who have gone missing or were murdered. She says she stands with her fellow lawmakers in saying they take care of each and every woman no matter what their color, whom they love, or where they come from.
Lekanoff is a member of the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force which was created in 2018 prior to her becoming a lawmaker.
Lekanoff says there are around 1,500 unsolved murders in Washington State.
Nikki Torres, a freshman senator from Pasco, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5477. which will continue the Legislature’s efforts to identify the root causes of the large number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Washington State.
