Domestic violence homicides spike in Oklahoma in 2024
by: Sheila Stogsdill Sheila Stogsdi
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma saw 122 domestic violence-related homicides last year, resulting in a 16% jump over 2023, according to a state report released on Thursday.
It was the highest number since the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board started collecting data in 2002.
The 128-page report shows between 2019 and 2023, Oklahoma averaged 115 domestic violence homicide victims, up from an average of 90 domestic violence homicide victims between 2014 and 2018.
“Tragically, domestic violence deaths have been on the rise in Oklahoma, especially across the last five years,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a prepared statement. “We must continue strengthening our statewide efforts to hold abusers accountable and to provide protection and support for victims in order to turn the page on this epidemic.”
In 2023, 30 victims were killed in murder-suicides, and 50 victims were killed in intimate partner homicides, which is the highest ever recorded. Notably, women comprised 82 percent of intimate partner homicide victims
Locally, two murder-suicide events were reported in Delaware County from 2018 to 2023, followed by one event in Ottawa County and none in Craig County. In the same three-county area, there were 512 reported domestic abuse incidents and 785 protective orders filed.
In Delaware County, Jake Atkins, of Colcord, was arrested for using a butcher knife to his victim’s throat. The victim was tied to a chair, injected with methamphetamine, beaten with metal bars on her ribs, and hung from a tree with a rope around her neck. Atkins was convicted and sentenced in 2022 of maiming and lesser charges of domestic assault and battery with intent to kill, domestic assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of domestic assault and battery.
The felon was sentenced to 40 years in prison and will not be able to live in Ottawa or Delaware counties when he is released.
This continues a trend for Oklahoma consistently ranking in the Top 10 states nationally of women being murdered by men in single-victim-single-offender incidents, according to the report.
The board also found that, on average, 59 children witness the violent death of a family member as a result of domestic violence every year.
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