Growing violence prompts summit

As police and hospital personnel dealt with the aftermath of the Cottonwood Hospital shooting Thursday, several miles north a summit on domestic violence was getting under way in Salt Lake City.

The Domestic Violence Summit at the Salt Palace marked the first time all organizations within Salt Lake County ranging from prosecutors to victims advocates met under one roof to share ideas and information.

"It's an opportunity for everyone to get together to collaborate," said Toni Marie Sutleff with the Salt Lake County Justice Court, one of the summit's organizers.

The goal is for the many disciplines involved in domestic violence response to understand the entire scope of the system and possibly identify its gaps and where services are duplicated.

Each city within the county may have its own justice court and its own method of handling domestic violence cases. While none of the methods are wrong, Sutleff said the idea of the summit was for everyone who might not ordinarily have the time to get together "to talk and learn from each other."

The other reason for the summit was the ever-increasing problem of domestic violence. Organizers say not only are the number of cases growing but the scale of violence is also elevating.

In 2002, the number of domestic violence-related deaths was 17, according to Utah Domestic Violence counselor Judy Katsen Bell. That number jumped to 27 in 2003. So far in 2004, a third to a half of the homicides committed in the state were domestic-related or allegedly committed by someone the victim knew, according to statistics kept by the Deseret Morning News.

As those attending Thursday's summit were registering, many were talking about the latest domestic violence tragedy at Cottonwood Hospital. Just after 6 p.m. Thursday, police said, 84-year-old Kimball Jencks entered his wife's third-floor room at Cottonwood Hospital, shot her once in the head with a small-caliber handgun, and then took his own life with a single shot. Investigators said the murder-suicide was a mercy killing.

Bell said not only is domestic violence becoming more violent, but domestic-related problems are escalating into violence at a quicker rate.

"Victim advocates are busier than ever. Our shelters remain full longer than ever," she said.

---

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com