Silhouettes Line Statehouse Steps Honoring Domestic Violence Victims
Columbia, SC (WOLO)– Thirty-nine silhouettes stood on the statehouse steps Tuesday symbolizing the lives lost to domestic violence in South Carolina in 2016. A bell rings on the Statehouse steps after every name and every story is told. The bell rings out 39 times total, for the 38 lives lost, and once for victims whom we are unaware.
“Obviously every year we’re always a little higher than we… well, we’re a lot higher than we want to be on the list of women killed by men in South Carolina. But when you look at the silhouettes up there, it really drives home the importance of all of us coming together,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said.
South Carolina is the 5th in the nation for women murdered by men. This is the same ranking South Carolina received the year before.
“Gracious God, put an end to anger, hatred, and fear and lead us to a time when no one will suffer at the hand of another,” Rabbi Eric Mollo said, with Tree of Life Congregation.
The sea of purple listened as survivor Sarah Jackson told her own story, one where she says she “lost herself in her marriage.” An abusive relationship she says she was trapped in for 24 years, with her six kids.
“Our faces had a smile on it, but our hearts were bleeding,” Jackson said.
Wilson says he read every single story before coming to the ceremony, and as a father, there is one that haunts him. Kristina Burroughs story starts almost exactly a year ago when she was shot and killed by her boyfriend, Keith Davis.
“Mr. Davis then shot and killed her 2-year old and 10-month-old nieces… and 10-month-old nieces and died by suicide,” Wilson said, getting emotional as he read off the ages.
The ceremony is not for just the families of the loved ones represented by the red and blue silhouettes.
“And those who survived unspeakable domestic abuse, to you we say with our words and our deeds here today: you are not alone. Today, we comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” Mollo said.
