Law enforcement agencies across North Texas are investigating a series of domestic violence-related homicides, part of what advocacy groups say is a growing and deeply troubling trend.
NBC 5 has tracked several deadly incidents over the past two weeks. On Tuesday, Fort Worth police said a man shot and killed a woman inside a home on Post Oak Boulevard following a “domestic altercation.” The suspect was later arrested in Irving after calling police and confessing, according to investigators.
One day earlier, police in Carrollton responded to a medical emergency in the 4600 block of North Josey Lane. Officers found 24-year-old Briana Casto dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Her boyfriend, Jomaar Lee Davis, has been named as the primary suspect.
In another incident, Brandon Ashley of Alvarado is accused of murdering his wife, Chelsea Spillers, a local schoolteacher, on Saturday.
Earlier this month, on Oct. 12, Mesquite police say Keisha Hillard was allegedly killed by her partner, Christopher Whitt, at a home on Avis Street.
“Domestic violence has one cause: It is power and control by one person against another person. It is not caused by anything else other than that,” said Kathryn Jacob, president of The Archway, the principal provider of domestic violence services in Tarrant County. The organization recently rebranded from SafeHaven of Tarrant County.
According to The Archway’s latest report, intimate partner homicides nearly doubled in Tarrant County from 2023 to 2024.
“We are talking about the difference between, you know, six and 11 or seven and 11,” Jacob said.
While the numbers are not as high as those seen during the pandemic, Jacob said any increase is disappointing. The goal, she added, is zero fatalities.
In Dallas County, a review by Genesis Women’s Shelter reported 88 adjudicated domestic violence fatalities from 2014 to 2018, up from 76 in the previous five-year period. That count includes only cases that went through the legal system and may not reflect the full number of deaths.
Jacob said early research points to a possible cultural shift contributing to the rise.
“We don’t know quite what the cause was behind this increase or what might have been a catalyst for that, but we do know that early research has indicated that there is… a general attitude throughout the United States that has become more accepting of violence as an approach to a problem,” she said. “I think we’ve seen that, sadly, in political violence on both sides of the aisle.”
“Just the idea that violence can solve a problem is really concerning to me, and I think to many others who work within violent crime,” she added.
Still, Jacob said collaboration in the region offers hope. In Tarrant County, a coalition that includes police, prosecutors and health systems is working to address the issue.
“Our partners at Alliance for Children are working on this issue on the child abuse side. We have partners with JPS and THR,” she said.
Jacob also emphasized the importance of working across county lines.
“In DFW, it’s really important that an agency like The Archway is working in partnership with The Family Place, with Genesis, with Mosaic, with Parker County folks, with Collin County folks,” she said. “This is… an area where folks are transient. They might own a home in Dallas County, and then they move up to Collin County, and maybe they buy some land and they move out to Parker County, right?”
If you or someone you know is experiencing violence in a relationship, call The Archway’s 24/7 crisis hotline at 1-877-701-7233 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.