MILWAUKEE — Karin Tyler, who works for the Office of Violence Prevention as a Family Injury and Violence Prevention manager, is working to mitigate domestic situations daily.
"Survivors are everywhere," said Tyler.
Unfortunately, Tyler herself is one of them. She found herself in a near-death domestic situation, being strangled with a gun to her head by her abuser.
"I'm trying to figure out how to stay alive, gun to my head, I have children in the back room and I'm trying to figure out again how can I keep my family safe. You know I was making every effort to leave," said Tyler.
She believes many victims try to navigate leaving. According to the National Domestic Violence Helpline, between January and June of 2020, Wisconsin officials answered 952 calls relating to situations like Tyler's.
2020 was deadly, as Wisconsin saw a sharp spike in domestic violence homicides. According to the recent Wisconsin Domestic Violence Homicide Report, a total of 58 victims were killed in domestic violence situations. Of those 58 victims, 24 of them came from Milwaukee, the most in the state.
On Monday afternoon, Zonta Club of Milwaukeehosted their 6th annual 'Say No to Violence against Women Silent Walk' downtown. Nearly 100 people comprised of community advocates, officers, and survivors silently marched from City Hall, holding up flags with the names of each victim who was killed by domestic violence.
"It's getting worse and I think you know, I think 2020 was a record-setting year. And this is not where we want to be setting records," said Donna Neal, advocacy chair for Zonta.
