16 deaths blamed on domestic violence in one year

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Last year, nearly 6,600 women, men, and children throughout Erie County were victims of domestic violence. 

It was the highest victim total in the past decade — 14 percent higher than the previous year, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Domestic violence incidents have been on the rise in the past several years.

Since 2018, 61 domestic violence deaths were reported in Erie County.  In most cases,  the victims of abuse were killed, though several abusers and other family members also died.  

Sixteen of those deaths occurred in one year, 2022.

Those rising numbers concern local advocates. 

“Our recent statistics are rather grim,” said Judith Olin, director of the University at Buffalo’s Family Violence and Women’s Rights Clinic. “These numbers are important. They inform our work.”

The rise in domestic violence was a focal point earlier this month at the Domestic Violence Summit held on Buffalo State University’s campus, where more than 100 individuals came together to learn how best to help victims and survivors of domestic violence. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul in early October announced $35 million in funding to be directed toward domestic violence safety programs throughout the state — dollars that will have a hand in saving lives, advocates said. 

“That is going to be huge,” said Lisa Bloch Rodwin, former Erie County Family Court judge. “Without support services, especially for advocates and social workers, you will never, ever be able to provide enough help to victims — especially of intrapersonal violence in a way that’s successful to get them to safety.”

Western New York will receive $4.1 million to aid local law enforcement agencies in solving domestic violence cases and helping victims. Erie County will receive $2.4 million in funding.

The money “will filter down into these grassroots agencies in the community who do the work every day,” said Assemblywoman Karen McMahon, who was a speaker at the  summit. 

“It’s really significant,” the Amherst Democrat said.

Olin, a former Erie County prosecutor focused on domestic violence before joining the University at Buffalo, said the best use of the state dollars would be to include flexible funds that could go directly to survivors fleeing their abusers. These funds may be used for things like transportation, an independent cell phone plan, or housing — anything that could provide separation from the abuser.

“Economic stability for survivors keeps them safer,” Olin said. “What keeps so many survivors in these relationships — and we heard this today — is financial dependance.”

The lack of resources can have extreme — sometimes fatal — consequences, advocates say.

So can a string of other pitfalls in the system designed to help victims, including racial and cultural barriers as well as lack of communication and coordination between agencies designed to help victims, they say.

“All the agencies and the attorneys tend to devolve into silos where they are not speaking to one another, and that's when you end up with more homicides,” Bloch Rodwin said.

Fatal consequences

The 61 domestic violence-related deaths in Erie County since 2018 include Keaira Hudson, who, in the fall of 2022, reported her estranged husband, Adam Bennefield, for beating and sexually assaulting her. 

Bennefield told her that she “was not getting out of there alive,” Hudson told Cheektowaga police, according to documents related to the case.

“I thought I was going to die,” Hudson said.

Bennefield was arrested on misdemeanor charges, then released on his own recognizance.

Hudson got an order of protection, but that didn't keep Bennefield away.

Days later, he shot the 30-year old woman to death while her three children watched, police said.

Hudson was among 16 domestic violence- related deaths in Erie County during 2022. It was the most deaths in any one year going back to at least 2018, the most recent year figures are available from the Erie County District Attorney’s office.

While the number of domestic violence-related deaths seems to rise and fall in any given year, there’s been a general increase in Erie County — and statewide — in the number of domestic violence incidents reported in the past decade.

Experts don’t know why.

An analysis of Erie County’s 2023 data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services found:

• There were 6,594 victims of domestic violence, including aggravated assault, simple assault, sex offense, and the violation of orders of protection. It does not include homicides.
• Simple assault was the most prevalent crime, 83 percent of all reports.
• Sixty-three percent of all victims in Erie County last year were women in intimate relationships with their abusers. 
• Men in intimate relationships with their abusers accounted for 14 percent of all victims of domestic violence.
• Children also suffer from domestic violence, both directly and secondhand, experts said. Last year, children and other family members in Erie County — including mothers and fathers — accounted for 23 percent of all victims in domestic violence crimes.
• Buffalo, which accounts for just under 30 percent of the county population, accounted for 61 percent of all domestic violence victims. 
• In the suburbs, Cheektowaga had the largest number of cases, accounting for 9 percent of all victims, followed by Amherst, the largest town, with 8 percent.

“Clearly, the problem of intimate partner violence is not yesterday’s problem,” Olin said.

Barriers to a beleaguered system

Individuals from all corners of domestic violence prevention — from nonprofits to legal experts and even people who have escaped their abusers — have pointed to the pitfalls of a system that is supposed to help survivors. 

Those pitfalls include a lack of housing options and  financial resources as well as language, cultural and racial barriers that add pressure to an already beleaguered system.          

“There have been trust issues in terms of African Americans getting services, so they wouldn’t go,” said Mary Clavell, cofounder of The Healing Station Agency. “They would rather stay home because they felt like they were not understood. They were not heard.”

But it’s the breakdown of communication between the independent pieces of the system that leads to more victims being murdered, Bloch Rodwin said. 

Lisa Bloch Rodwin, former Erie County Family Court judge. Photo by Garrett Looker.

Bloch Rodwin has given her entire career to solving domestic violence. Before retirement, she served 12 years as a judge in Erie County. For more than a decade before her appointment and election to Family Court, Bloch Rodwin led the Erie County District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau. 

To the former judge, the summit has the potential to change the approach to domestic violence for the better, simply by bringing the corners of the complex system together and building relationships. 

“When I look around and see … the faces that reflect who Buffalo really is today, that is amazing,” Bloch Rodwin said. “You have all of these small non-profits and larger agencies trying to work together, and the fact that they’re here communicating with each other is huge.”

The diversity of culture, race, community, and language in Erie County presents a unique challenge to demolishing the barriers in domestic violence prevention, advocates said.

Those barriers can only be removed if the “silos” seek “cross-pollination,” Bloch Rodwin said. 

“Your level of connection to the survivor and ability to work with them is increased exponentially if you have somebody from their community sitting next to them,” Bloch Rodwin said.

Garrett Looker