GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Jayden Kline was just 18 years old when she was shot and killed outside her home in Fridley last week.
Days before that, a woman was stabbed to death in Marshall, Minnesota, just one day after a woman was shot and killed in Minneapolis.
The accused? Their intimate partners.
In total, there have been 35 intimate partner deaths in Minnesota so far this year — the most in more than a decade.
"I know a lot of people want to know why so many this year versus other years, and the answer is we don't know," said Guadalupe Lopez, the executive director of Violence Free Minnesota. "How do we put hope back into hearts and to our community members to feel that there is a way that we can come out it, that this is preventable and we can stop it? It's a learned behavior."
Violence in relationships is learned, so it has to be unlearned for some, and for the rest it's never learned in the first place.
"Healthy relationships should be taught in every single school in the state and the country," said Joe Shannon of Violence Free Minnesota.
Boys and men — almost always the perpetrators of this violence — have to learn how to have healthy, respectful relationships early. And if they don't and do show signs of violence, they have to be able to get help.
"When will we make time for people who are causing harm to actually say, 'Listen, I have this behavior and I don't want to continue hurting this person that I love, so where do I get support?" said Lopez. "It's always on the victim to escape to leave, to take care."
Escape and orders for protection can't be the only ways, because we have seen them not work time and time and time, again.
"If we are at 35 people killed this year, that is someone killed every 10 days by their partner in the state," Shannon said. "Every 10 days, someone is killed. Someone is likely killed on your birthday, on your anniversary… that shows how prevalent it really is."
If you are in need of help or services, please call Tubman's 24-hour crisis & resource line at 612-825-0000.
Help is also available by calling 800-799-7233 or texting START to 88788 to be connected with someone from the National Domestic Violence Hotline. The hotline includes more options for support and identifiers of abuse on its website.
For Minnesota residents, Cornerstone MN also offers resources and safe housing for domestic abuse survivors and crime victims. Call 1-866-223-1111 or chat online with the crisis hotline.
If it is an emergency, call 911.
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