A Dangerous Silence (2019) Domestic Violence Documentary

no [Music] no no no no no no [Music] over a dozen Witnesses coming forward willingly speaking to police according to court testimony Witnesses say they watched as Destiny virgin frantically exited a car and ran down Macon Road screaming while narrowly missing oncoming traffic that I once walked breathe loved just like you please know it was love turned to fear they kept me there it was love twisted interfere that it kept me in a Chokehold it cut off my breath it blurred my vision and I couldn't see how to break free I should have told a friend I should have told my family I should have gotten that TPO before the police let him go but all these shoulders won't bring me back not when I lied so well to hide my shame that cover the signs in my death makes just one woman tell a friend instead of holding it in if my death reminds you [Music] to Anna all you are daily then remember my name Shannon from the center of your soul wait for him I praise and let me know that my living was not in fact remember my name [Applause] [Applause] my message is to other parents that thank you thank y'all all right thank you I appreciate that this was born August 23rd 2000 Destiny changed my whole life she she changed my life she really did um she made me become whole again um I grew with her because I had just turned 18 so I was still young myself she was my child first but she was my best friend we did everything together and I promised myself that day in the hospital when I had destiny that I was going to do everything in my power to to love this child to take care of her always because that's the first time that I fell in love that's Destiny again like I said I just took a lot of pictures of her I bathed her three times a day my grandma used to say You're Gonna Blade the black off that baby I I didn't I just I just loved her so much and like instantly I can feel that she was gonna change my world because I was in a dark place when I had her you just that's amazing world to me and still does September the second 1996. she she changed my whole life I did a complete 360 when I had man it was like I just fell off the face of the Earth and just dedicated all my time to so we just had this bond that was like Unbreakable and that uh Mariah's dad is like family to me I've known them forever Mariah and ivory used to sit in my kitchen playing Barbie dolls and eating cookies while Zach and the family were all hanging out together like when we'd have Sunday dinners so I've known Mariah all her life and ivory and Mariah went to Carver High School together they were very close very close but you know I know my daughter was you know she had a little wild side on it too but but you know as far as what her friends tell me I could say she was loved by many when she bring her friends over they talk about it and you know I'm getting to the point where I'm seeing bruises on my daughter and you know like maybe what's wrong with you what's wrong with your eye what's wrong with your arms nothing you know the typical kid is going to tell you it ain't nothing but you know as a parent that is something the typical I feel you know I heard this when I was running and stuff like that you know that you you could you tell them I heard them before tell me what's really going on but it's just the scaredness because she know how I am I'm a protector I'm gonna handle my business if I have to when it come to my kids I mean I'm just I can't do nothing but listen to those answers if she ain't really telling me what's going on and who I need to go see so I was just stuck now I can't see my baby come out of college which would have been even better but I keep this with me where I go now because I this is what she gave me and she told me I've been I mess it up yeah Jericho as a person I believe that she was to whoever she was around what they needed so to me she just always played her role as my baby sister and I was her big brother she was also a little firecracker she wanted tight to let nobody push her around you know she was the type to speak her mind like no problem speaker mind she was a given type right she would give her last and I mean that like literally she would give her laughs this was Annie the Annie the one that lived with my mama this was her Awards day this is the actual last Awards day that my sister gonna be able to go to with her children and this is it right here that my sister saying get it Mama [Music] okay [Music] she's very uh just a beautiful person I mean she she don't never put her feelings before us she always try to make us happy we would be out to eat right now she would be telling jokes about almost everything anything talk about some we got a graduation to get ready for and walk across the stage DN champion king was a mother a sister a daughter and a friend to many according to Columbus Police champion king was allegedly stabbed multiple times by her spouse life is very short but I never thought out there but she hit a lot we're learning that now she hit up hit a lot of pain that we didn't know about but we didn't know my sister was going through this much pain we didn't know he was going to kill her and I'll never forget when I met him I couldn't believe first of all my sister was even with this person and I even said it and my mom asked me she said Sean will be nice you know and she was like Deanne really really likes him like I heard one situation her co-worker was saying that he came up to her job and they said all of the people in the kitchen all the guys literally went out to go beat him up because he was being physical with her there at the restaurant should be one of the managers at Outback and they had to run him off the property from understanding I just found this out through all this process and um I'll never forget her saying to me that they used to all ask her why are you still with him why are you with him she would say I love him it goes back to 2014 that the domestic calls started happening and she was calling the police to get help and we did see in the records it does show that um each time my sister dropped it let me just say this to you typically when I have a case a number of times I will have a victim a female victim who will come to the court and ask the court to dismiss the case you say well how can that be well I'm not sociologist I'm not a psychologist I'm just a judge okay but over the years that I've had these cases come before me I've had some of the victims say to me outright but judge this is the support of our family he's in jail our family's gonna suffer that was so true it's true until you have lived it and the one question that people ask that I get so irritated why did you stay why did you stay my mom said they asked her the same thing she said I saw so much of me and you that I didn't want you to go through what I have and the same thing I tell my own to this day people forget too with domestic violence every day is not bad and at some point these the victims loved that abuser it you know they didn't go on a first date and get punched in that and think let's go have a kid because I still love them and I was thinking like okay he's here in Alaska he's with my family he's away from his family he's going to change it's me so I decided like if I just do what he says and calm down try not to argue hold back my tongue a little bit more maybe things would get better I had left we were married eight years so I had left the home a total of five times we know that it's a process I think statistics show it takes seven to nine times to leave for good he gave his View and I gave my view and then he said something else and then you know I wasn't a granted we weren't really arguing so the next thing I know you know he slapped me he slapped me across the face and I saw stars and the plan was his plan was that I would work until I was 30 and then when I was 30 I am would stop working and homeschool our kids and like the whole plan was laid out for me um and I graduated from college and decided maybe that I wanted to go get my masters and we had a conversation where he said like what's the point um of you getting your Masters because you're going to stop working when you're 30. I'm gonna start raising kids so there's no point in you going to get your Masters I was asking him to change some things and he said I like myself and I'm not I'm not going to change and then he followed up with saying that if I would have known that you were going to change your mind about the plan that he had I would never would have married you I don't see why you're making this a bigger deal than it has to be there is a quiet Eerie scene now at this Elizabeth Canty apartment in South Columbus where blood splatters are still visible outside the front door inside four victims butchered to death including a three-year-old one-year-old an infant baby girl their mother 29 year old Jerica Spellman suffered the most trauma with more than a dozen stab wounds this was a horrendous scene uh that has had some bearing on the the thoughts of the officers investigators as well as family members [Music] [Applause] while domestic violence might not discriminate public reaction does specifically if I could be candid um with Jerica Spellman instead of everybody being horrified and shocked there were people who were quick to say wait a minute look at their pictures on Facebook look what she did for a living look where she worked is it okay that a mom and her little babies were stabbed to death because she was an exotic dancer on Victory Drive why is it even being mentioned why was it even brought up I know it's the nature of what I do I know that's what we do we go and we look you understand that the different reaction I get when I showed up perhaps in North Columbus on another horrific domestic violence incident where people were killed very different public reaction nobody deserves what happened to Jericho Spellman I looked at all the news clips man I think that I think that that made me actually believe and know that this is real but for months man I just been hoping that it's been a big long dream and I just been hoping to wake up just been hoping to wake up a lot of my clients that are African-American Or Hispanic their families when it comes to abuse or infidelity they don't go to get help they don't go to counseling they don't believe in doing none of that when I do trainings for CPD I try to make sure that the officers are aware that there are cultural barriers and certain communities I can say the African-American Community it's not always okay to call law enforcement so when someone may be in a situation where they need help they won't call law enforcement their neighbors may call and then they may be reluctant to speak to law enforcement once they arrive what goes on in a courtroom has been described before as the only autopsy that you walk away from and especially in a domestic case every part of your life is subject to being opened up and examined and held up to the light of day for inspection and so we we have an opportunity here to probe a little bit more deeply when you love somebody you're going to make excuse after excuse after excuse for them or I made them mad oh it was the first time oh he didn't mean it oh he said he was sorry you still care about them you still can't imagine your life without them just not knowing how to even tell sometimes it's because they feel embarrassed you feel ashamed I was able to get out of there because I was in the military but a lot of women don't have that opportunity [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] and I knew what she was going through when I looked at her collection probably saw the bruises and I held her and I told her violence especially domestic violence is nothing to play with I'm one of the lucky ones so I haven't even begun to tell you how I had to hide every sharp object in the house I pulled up the trash and I placed them all under the trash bag and put the trash back in there how I had to start over from scratch with nothing domestic violence and Dating Violence are not the same when you call the situation with a high schooler domestic violence it kind of invalidates their situation a little bit because when you think of domestic violence you think of something happening in a household when you think of two teenagers that are in abusive relationship they don't live together they don't have um children well in some cases don't have children together so that's not a domestic situation that's a Dating Violence situation I would say it's a combination of both when I'm on the scene I become a little bit more withdrawn not to reflect my emotions on the people that are out in the crowd or the families um later is when anger hits me and then I get mad at the circumstances and why they had to to go to that level um destiny was in a very abusive relationship my baby driving down Woodruff Farm Road yeah yeah almost home concentrating extra hard get in there girl ain't using damn shooting light but it's okay [Laughter] want to ride through them stop signs and [ __ ] you know I'm saying California stopping all right well she get that ticket I'm jumping out the car until the cops she stole it I was at the house good job baby her curfew was 9 30 because it was a weekday um so I had said Destiny I believe this was on Thursday I said Destiny um make sure you home on time now she was like I'm just gonna go out to eat then we're gonna come home um 10 o'clock rolled around and actually I didn't even wait till 10 it was like 9 35 because I'm sitting here like I you should walk on the door at like 9 29 928 she she's skinned it by teeth but she don't be late you know um so I'm not okay something ain't right you know Destiny is 9 35 then she's not answering her phone nor is she answering her text messages 10 o'clock rolls around finally um I get a message back and I said Destiny you're late uh what's going on and it was the way the message read that wasn't my baby texting me because I can tell how it was worded the way it was spelled I mean this and didn't talk like that so I knew then it wasn't hurt um so this young lady was reported missing by her mother um Friday uh April 27 2018. I had called the police that morning before I got ready to go to work because once I stayed up all night I couldn't sleep I'm like I'm blowing up her phone I'm leaving messages and he was he he was texting me back again but I knew it wasn't Destiny um because of the way the stuff that he was saying you know it didn't it didn't even make any sense the case was uh taken one day and then it was assigned the next the detective went on um and got as much information from the officer and what we do is go ahead and put people on the news um we do a flyer and we send it to all the media outlets and we send it to the patrol officers after I made report I started looking for her myself I have a friend named Latonya Merritt I mean we hit the ball rolling hitting them streets we made Flyers um I wasn't going to stop until I finally uh we did get it information that she was being held against her will at a certain location um the officers went to that location I said from that point once my child said this that she wanted to come home and you wouldn't let her come that that was kidnapping we took her to the hospital and when they found her she did have a black eye and some bruises to her face after they released her from um after she walked out the house they let her walk out they had Mr Urban and cuffs and she stated they were caused by the person she was with um they didn't initially charged him with kidnapping at first they charge him with his obstruction battery and criminal trespassing on the criminal trespassing was because he took her phone and damaged it prevented her from calling his grandmother she briefly talked to me after the kidnapping um and she was just like you know I had she said I told some of your daughter's friends that came to pick her up a couple times from over here when they had getting when they had gotten to it she was like I tell her friends that don't bring it back over here because my for my grandson hurts her but we know that at some point um she became deceased between that in our case [Music] it's so cold outside out of all the other places is Georgia and it's like this is where I stay this is where we live and that's just crazy here like where you live at the Mississippi violence is going on around like I would be very surprised domestic violence to me is basically a man hurting a woman or a woman hurting a man like in the hallways I see my twice girls got like throwing up against her lockers with a little boyfriend or whatever I don't know if that's bottom so I think that's violence though that is violent yes they throw up against lock I was like oh my gosh do I need to change something there's different like perspective and violence so it could be verbally it can be physically I've experienced both not me but I've seen like both situations people close to me is and it doesn't just affect you you know it was my freshman year and I think he was like a junior or a senior and he had a girlfriend that was a freshman and he basically took advantage of her and he did hit her a couple times I was just standing at the bottom bleachers and then you just see oh he double hockey sticks very close and it was the girl started fighting her boyfriend they were in a relationship they disagreed on simple stuff and he hit her she was driving hit her made her drive into a ditch and some people are just so I don't want to say desperate but desperate to find someone that gives them that attention or take care of them in that way and that's the only way they can find it is through abuser for me as a person like I want to I want to make sure that I'm gonna date just hopping on a train and hop on it is not like our generation does that a lot and I feel like that's where a lot of the statistics come from look man I'm tired of this bro like you steady on me all the time I can't do nothing I can't go nowhere like I'm gonna be doing this to you man like let me live I would say for me um one of my friends were in an abusive relationship and I it affected me because it felt like I didn't know what was going on until after the fact and that was like months after so it felt like you couldn't do anything about it and you were just there like you knew nothing about it and it affected your friend and you know when your friend hurts you hurt I had an opportunity to engage in conversation with a Superior College Court Judge I explained to him that um we should have some form of domestic violence taught at least starting in the ninth grade the judge said Muskogee County Schools have these children eight hours a day for 180 days a year let's talk about the other 84 percent of their time if that that element was in the school system teaching those young men chivalry teaching those young men to have respect for those young girls that could only move I mean help in their in their lives as they grow up the schools can teach you the law like we do in law school but schools can't teach you to be a lawyer and I think that things that require modeling or having a good example set before you are things that uh the way Nature has it set up or best done in the home and so I don't think we should ever fall into the Trap of of concluding that what we do in schools is a good substitute for being a good mom or dad the one thing that I know for a fact uh 90 of felons that have been convicted as ninety percent in this nation if you look back through their history uh their upbringing somewhere they saw domestic violence no we live in a society that is telling messages every day that we should be violent and yes boys are leading the pack because as a male culture but the ladies are coming pretty good they were catching up I was at a school mentoring kids and I saw a young lady boys walking down the hall and they're in two different sides she walks over to the boy and slaps the boy right in front of my face in front of the principal so I called the principal back next day I said well what was what happened with that well she said that it stemmed from something that the boy said early I mean the day before but then I realized that she had not been taught conflict resolution because that was violence well I was like we have to get our project done and she was out with like everybody else in the classroom we had like two days left you know this classroom we need time to edit and that's been there's not enough time it's class that means I got to come after school so then she was like well I've been trying I was like no you haven't then I got Pops right there if it if the worlds were reversed the whole situation would have been handled differently that's why I go back to we all need to be held accountable women I mean we ought to be held accountable for what we do our actions yeah absolutely uh my second wife and I uh there was domestic violence on her part in our marriage she was a paranoid schizophrenic and she would attack me one minute she'd kiss me and the next minute she'd slap me the men sometimes don't even aren't aware that what they were experiencing was unhealthy and abusive even if it wasn't physical because we had one guy he was getting um this is us so he was on a limited income and the girlfriend would try to take all his money um act up on him um leave the children with him make it where he couldn't do anything my children are grown now but they still remember those nights of her violently attacking me and me having to hold hold her off basically I'd usually go into another room and lock the door so she couldn't get in until she'd calm down you know parents have to realize that these are going to be their child's memory of their childhood for life and do you want their memory of their childhood to be of trauma and parents arguing all the time and dysfunction because that's what they're going to remember as their life growing up you'll see kids that are called their mom stupid because that's what their dad has said so it's you have to read almost retrain kids or who's here to say that's not how we talk to people and that's not what happens it's just so disheartening after Tatum's birthday party and we were at the house um Taylor was sitting at the the kitchen counter and he said he said everybody else has their mommy why don't we have our Mommy I want my mommy and I thought we just lost it yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't ever tell her oh he's chasing you because he likes you he's hitting you because he likes you I think that we don't even realize kind of the image we put into our daughter's heads when we say that stuff at a young age and hope that they listen hope that because of this experience that and this traumatic experience that we've been through that they don't want to go through that and that's what I'm hoping for all of them my nieces my daughters that they don't want to be with anyone who wants to cause harm to them okay as a father she was my firstborn she was my only daughter so me having seven kids six some boys one girl I can't walk her down the aisle can or grandkids I'm so used to hearing her every day saying that I love you that was always something we did texting or she had called me or she coming by I miss all that you know I even you know I think about how I had to whoop a little butt when she was two years old tearing up my house but you know it's it you can laugh at some of those moments but at the same time it make you and make you cry I believe that these ladies are being failed by the court system that's supposed to protect like for instance I shouldn't have to repeatedly call the jail to make sure that Marquel everyone was still locked up um there should be a system set in place where the victims were no automatically ASAP as soon as their abuser has been released or is about to get released you need to make sure that you have a will you have to spell it out married or not how you want your children to be taken care of when you're no longer here if we only lock the silence up if that's all we're going to do without any education without any intervention the cycle just continues the cycle just continues with men you see a lot of same-sex relationships that you're going to see some of that domestic violence in you do see men that have been hit by a woman or done something you know normally with an object one of my friends she was in a relationship with another female and a lot of people downplayed the situation because they were a same-sex couple no one took it serious until a public altercation occurred which resulted in both of the females being kicked out of school and at that point people were like wow like this really happened um this is what she went through and they started to feel for her as a victim she moved back home and I saw and I could tell by things that she posted that she was still going through things even if it wasn't with that person she was entering other relationships and she was using other ways to cope with the situation that may not have been the healthiest and gratefully that I was I'm in the position that I'm in that I was able to find resources and I got her a support group that was in her area and she's been going to that and she's dedicated to finding taking not only healing herself but finding a way to help other people you'll have some victims that are that'll want to talk about how great hope Harbor was and what they've done and you've got other people that want to be like that was a part of my life that I'm done with that is domestic violence does not define me so they move forward and they may never even talk about ever being here foreign did I do something are you upset about something or look I really in the mood would be bothered okay what's wrong let's go let's stop asking all these questions [Music] [Music] I'm talking to you man [Music] wait [Applause] uh right [Applause] get up [Applause] if anybody asks you know where I'm going [Applause] [Music] soon [Music] [Applause] it was a Saturday um and it's crazy that you know they say that people know that when their time is coming um and after I you know thought back on some things I said maybe Destiny did know that her time was coming maybe she felt it maybe it was something that he said that she knew that he wasn't playing this time I I don't know but he kept on a Saturday um and that Friday me and Destiny spent all day together we watched movies we went and got something to eat she didn't usually on a Friday night she tried to go hang out for a couple hours but she didn't go anywhere um so we spent all day Friday together Saturday when we woke up we ate breakfast we spent some more time together I took me a nap because I worked night shift um so I had laid down like at two and I woke up at five Destiny was gone but when I went when I laid down Destiny was there and this is the Saturday um so I I got up and I texted her and I went you know at first I went in her room and I was like no I told her you know Destiny could we you know we OCD so I said this is you know I don't know why you left your room like that you know and she was like I just went to the store I'll be right back this is where the text message said um so I said okay and I'm glad I didn't force my baby because those are the last few messages that me and her text um before he had killed her so I'm glad I didn't first of all I just told her okay um so I got ready to go to work you know I had left I was at work like an hour you know where I work at we're not allowed to have phones on the floor so my phone was in the um break room somebody had ran to the line and they had told me that I need to go to my phone because something was wrong with my daughter you know and I don't even know who it was but they was they said Destiny been shot and I said oh I said why he shot my baby they didn't even tell me that it was him I just knew I knew it was him um I knew it was him so I flew out the building and I wish I would have went to make a roll instead of going to the hospital because maybe I would um I would have got to lay there with her you know to let her know everything was okay um but I went to the hospital because that's what they told me to go um and I was there for hours they they reported shots fired at seven o'clock oh p.m on that Saturday you know and I think I got to the hospital like at 7 30 or something like that and I stood there Thomas 12 o'clock before they told me that Destiny was gone um I'm thinking she's in surgery um one time a cop came out and he was like did um does she have any tattoos they say only had two tattoos the first one I took her to get and the second one it was more fresh and and it's crazy that she had just got this tattooed in the um the tattoo red everyone is not loyal I'm still waiting on the doctor to come out and talk to me um and they didn't like I said they came out around 12 and that's when they told me that Destiny had um passed away and they just killed me um because that's all I had that's all I had she was my only child and she did not deserve that the young lady and her children that was absolute Madness I don't know for sure but if I had to guess just from looking at the uh individuals um mug shot I would have said he was strung out on drugs um and then I think well he would just about have to be to have stabbed his girl and all those children multiple times that's just not normal that's a sad case right there so what are we cooking today King [Music] so the first thing is caution and to we we always send to two officers number one went over here I just opened this because it's okay no we haven't gone um they arrive police they're going to process that scene to make sure first of all nobody's gonna shoot at them when they get out of the car who's there how many people are there boys here make yourself [Music] it's the person who called able to come outside [Music] okay are you making apple juice you're making apple juice and that's a good thing because you never know what you're going to walk into all right two babies one adult female good job King thank you for letting us join your show on today say bye bye it was the day before Tasha's birthday I don't keep my phone with me but my wife had her cell phone and it rang one time and when it rained I said I know that number like I recognized the number from somewhere but because we was in the middle of a discussion I ain't want to be rude to answer the phone so it rang again when it rang again I said I know this number from somewhere and there was my brother one of my sisters and brothers are good friends that they grew up with he was actually calling me uh from Department complex is where it happened at so when I picked the phone up it's like hello and it was my brother on the other end and these words stick with me like Like Glue man he said I got some bad news man and my mom like what what what happened what happened he was like man Brandon killed pulling the kids man when he said that it was uh us it was a like it didn't even feel real and I was sitting beside Tyson on the couch and My Girls was in the back room so I was like what and he was like yeah Brandon killed pooing the kids so I was like all of them he was like yeah I was like King two he was like all of them gone man so I went outside uh to try to make sure that I was getting what I thought I was in by the time Tasha came out and she just fell to pieces [Applause] so she grabbed my phone but she called her husband on the phone like she talked to him and she was asking what it was because his family had the boys because they went to a graduation with his family the day before that Friday and so uh they had a little conversation so I know my little baby red I know she's like Mom can I ride with y'all I was like yeah I'm gonna pick up your little cousin yes so we get in the car we ride to her house because she's not far she stayed on the street from my mom you might as well stay so when we pulled up I sit in the car because I know her husband and me we don't get along so I'm sitting in the car my baby drops out the car and go in the house with her so I'm just playing on my phone I'm watching the Kendrick graduation on my app because it you know it was on the news and so they were showing Kendrick graduation I remember my baby just running out the house saying Mama he's hurting Auntie Diddy so then when I ran in there I tried to help my sister I thought he was just punching her you know how you think a man on top of your sister just you know fighting just on top of her penis or when he died what happened was um I ran I started punching them in the back of the head because he was already on the bed on top of my sister he came up with the knife and he swung and then he cut me so that's when I realized they had nice my babies behind so I like run we running out the door so it was some Mexican kids outside cleaning the baby yard I was like um hell you know they probably didn't understand help so I wouldn't have beaten on the neighbor door I was like hell give me a gun or some help I was like I need help you know because I'm cutting my hands cut I was like how the police I already called the police and I told them to come but it took them like 15 or 20 minutes to come I felt like the ambulance 911 everybody felt me really failed me that day because I called the police when I was running out the door I used the Mexican phone the neighbors they just standing there I'm like y'all know how to help do CPR I'm trying to do CPR on my sister uh could I can help her you know what I'm saying I tried to fight him he walked he just walked out the house like he didn't do nothing by The Neighborhood because the night was like helped me I was starting over he just walked out the house and walked up the road so I ran in there trying to try to help my sister give her CPR you can help her because he cut her so bad he cut her like he cut her Jaws open her neck open he stabbed her so bad that I was trying to put pressure in the later like put in my mama and my sister in the pool because I caught my baby called them and they pulled up and then that's when the police pulled up because my sister gonna beat the police and up there and my sister to try to put the towel around her face so we can do CPR but her neck still had holes and it covered the sides I mean he nearly cut my sister like a fish or something he he let it do it it was just messed up so bad and that's why I said he meant to do it and then I rehearse because he sent in jail and gave him a bond how you give somebody a bun that literally killed somebody like that and they see how many times they said 25 times cut a girl 25 times that's more than that breast cancer survivors you know we talk about that feel like as a community as a whole we need to celebrate domestic violence survivors they fought for their lives too and it needs to be something that that shame and that humiliation that is associated with domestic violence goes away help that person in any way you can Comfort them don't confront their abuser because that could be a dangerous time to do that having a voice being seen being heard being valued it's not just about um coming in and and talking and sharing your story although that's a piece of it but it's also learning how to re-narrate that story I was hit with three of these bullets you know I may have a day at work they maybe you know kind of you know going to the left at work so I slow down and I stay focused and I think okay I reach in my pocket and I look at this and then I say to myself no I'm having a good day this is a bad day so I'm having a good day this is a bad day this was the worst day of my life January 7 1995. I'm walking because I am a survivor and I'm walking also because I'm a counselor and I have seen many women that have gone through domestic violence and also means that have gone through domestic violence I understand sometimes that there are Financial concerns but we're in a place and our our uh agency is a perfect example of being able to provide services that are affordable to people and so part of it that may be knowing the resources within your community and what's available and accessible to you and we just need to let it be known that it needs to be talked about it needs to be uncomfortable conversation about domestic violence and we need to get our young women and men to be aware of this to realize there is help everywhere all you have to do is just reach out you know there might be somebody that's in a situation that sees this and they think they're the only ones going through it and they'll hear that they're not there may be somebody in a situation that doesn't know that there's options for leaving and they'll hear that there are there's shelters there's Community programs there's legal advocacy programs there's people in your community or our community that want to help you and want you to be safe and and can help you take the steps that you need to take to get to that point I'm the Community Education coordinator at Hope Harbor as I go to the hospitals I do trainings for the nurses I go into the schools I do Dating Violence trainings partner with other organizations in the community ensuring that we spread awareness and I just say oh this is so tragic when someone gets killed but making it a full circle moment just knowing I'm helping somebody possibly make a difference in their life or their even their children's life it's it's the most enjoyment for me her partner means so much to me um you see these women face material come in that are broken and their children are broken and they get this support here and they get a life that they may have never been known her hope is seeking more um believing in something that you haven't seen yet and hope Harper provides that for a lot of our clients ensuring that they have a brighter future if I say I love you that means I live for you uh my life my love this is my life this is my love so my definition ultimately is that love is life love is live life love is living loving is living I want to believe that what happened to her is going to save other women that's what I have to believe I have to believe that in this act of violence it's going to save other women that are going through the same thing that she was going through we come looking to you kind Heavenly Father praising you for the young lady that have stood and shared her story Lord God it took courage it took Yukon heavenly father that survived her during that awful situation but Lord God the story does not end here there are others that out there that has a story to tell and we want to be that guiding force with you in front behind above and on the side of us to tell them that there is a better way there is help kind Heavenly Father we ask in the name of Jesus because there is a need we cannot sit in our little self places secured places and there are others out there that are saying come help me I need some help like God we just pray that this Gallery we thank you for those officials that have come the judges we thank you for the resources that are part that are provided here today but foreign most of all Lord God let us leave here without burning desire to say unto other there is help there is a man called Jesus these are not blessings we ask in our son Jesus name amen amen and amen foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: J Love Media Productions

Views: 322,806

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Id: pZxUAS84aQ4

Length: 57min 45sec (3465 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2022