HUTTO — October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and local officials are asking for donations of toiletry items to stock local shelters that provide safe havens for victims.
“We do have a domestic violence shelter in Hutto and also in Round Rock,” said Hutto Victim Assistance Coordinator Khila Coleman during a recent observance in City Council Chambers.
City leaders issued a proclamation recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Williamson County is listed as a highneed area by the Texas Council on Family Violence, with 62% of victims unable to find safe shelter due to lack of space, officials said.
The city is holding the toiletry drive to help those who are forced to leave a violent home.
“A lot of people that have to flee from an abusive situation leave with just the clothes on their back and their kids have nothing,” Coleman said. “So we’re looking for toothbrushes, toothpaste, baby bottles, hygiene products … survivors retreating to safe spaces don’t have those items in their possession.”
Donation bins are available during October at City Hall and the City Library, 500 W. Live Oak St.; the Hutto Police Department, 401 Front St.; and at the Hutto Family YMCA, 200 Alliance Blvd.
According to statistics from the Texas Council on Family Violence, each minute, 24 people in the United States are physically harmed, raped or stalked by an intimate partner, city officials learned.
“In 2022, there were 216 Texans killed by an intimate partner, with three of the fatalities occurring in Williamson County. Nineteen of the intimate-partner fatalities in 2022 were teens or young adults,” Mayor Mike Snyder said during the observance at last week’s meeting.
Detective Rooshad Irani told the audience about an incident that took a personal toll on his life — a shooting that claimed his sister, Rowena, 22, after she dated an abusive man for about a month.
She broke up with the person, the officer said, telling him, “‘I no longer want to have any contact with you, I no longer want to see you. Please just leave me alone. It’s over, it’s time to move on.’” According to the investigator, on Oct. 3, 2016, the man walked into a home, shot his sister in the head, “walked over her, walked out the back door and left,” Irani said.
She was pronounced dead in the hospital the next day.
“Everyone in this community is near and dear in our hearts because we all have a personal story to relate to,” the detective said.
Domestic abuse is often hidden, but it can have long-ranging effects on the lives of people who witness it as well as the victims, officials said.
Statistics indicate up to 60% of domestic violence perpetrators have also abused children in the household. When surveyed, one in 10 high school students say they have experienced physical violence from a partner in the past, lawenforcement officials
said. In addition, the Police Department has responded to over 50 Child Protective Services referrals this year, though not all involved violence.
