A candlelight ceremony on Tuesday paid tribute to 14 people who died in San Diego County last year due to domestic violence.
The ceremony during Domestic Violence Awareness Month featured testimony from one survivor who said abuse comes in different forms and impacts people from all walks of life.
“I’m here today to bring awareness to a really big part of abuse, which is financial abuse, and being a survivor and a childhood survivor, the impact and how I got from that to where I am today,” said Ivette Kuyateh. "I know what it is like to go to the counter to try to pay for groceries and your account has been wiped out. I know what that is like as a mom and a woman that the trust your gave to a partner was breached in the most intimate way."
According to the National Coalition of Domestic Violence, 34% of women in California and 31% of men experience physical abuse or stalking by an intimate partner,
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“Within domestic abuse, there is the domestic violence; there’s also coercion and threats; there’s also financial abuse; there is also psychological harm, the emotional harm,” San Diego Domestic Violence Council President Claudio Grasso said.
The event is hosted by the San Diego Domestic Violence Council, which said that among the 14 people who died in 2022, 10 were current or former partners of their killers. The other four people were either family members, new partners of the victim, or bystanders who were killed during the domestic violence incidents.
Those events represented an 11% increase in domestic violence homicides in the county from 2021 and thousands more are impacted day to day. Grasso said there were 17,472 calls to law enforcement about domestic abuse -- and that’s just incidents that were reported.
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“Get help, open the door and keep the door open. Create a safety plan and go to places like One Safe Place here in San Diego that can provide all the resources and get them connected to the things they may need to leave and do it safely,” Kuyateh.
Others in attendance at Tuesday's event included San Diego County District Attorney's Office members, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez and San Diego County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten.
The San Diego City Council on Tuesday discussed accepting $6 million of county grant funding for an emergency shelter for domestic violence victims.
