The Life of Takita Mathieu was brought to a tragic end on February 18, 2015 in Houston, Texas. Before I go into the details of her murder, lets first look at some statistics related to her situation.
- According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
- In New York State, 50% of all adult women murdered were killed in domestic violence incidents. (DCJS, 2009)
An executive summary of the United States National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey results, shows that:
- 16.2% of women and 5.2% of men have been stalked
- 35.6% of women and 28.5% of men have experienced domestic violence in some form by an intimate partner.
- An estimated 1 in 17 women and 1 in 20 men experienced rape,?physical violence, and/or stalking?by an intimate partner in the 12?months prior to taking the survey.
Takita was killed at appoxamately 3:40pm on February 18th 2015, at her job. The man who shot her was identified to be her ex-boyfriend; he also shot himself at the scene of her shooting. A co-worker called her the police to report the shooting.
Prior to this shooting, Takita had filed two reports with the Houston police. The first report was filed in January, the second on the day of her death. According to her family, she indicated that she was afraid for her life. However the police basically told her that their hands were tied.
Takita’s story has become an all too common narrative in many domestic violence to murder cases. Her ex-boyfriend, whose name has not yet been released, reportedly stalked and harassed her with over 140? phone calls for 4 months prior to the shooting. Had the police set up survalliance on her phone, they probably could have caught the harassment and maybe even physical threats that may have been made towards Takita by her ex-boyfriend. However they basically turned a blind eye and now this single young mother leaves her two-year-old daughter behind. Her shooter remains on life support at this time.
The news coverage of this story is also disturbing. A very common picture being used when reporting this story does not seem appropriate. I personally don’t think the photo is offensive, however I can see how it may give viewers a slightly negative impression of the victim. I would not want a lady that I personally cared for shown like this, in a story talking about her murder.
While it seems like a great picture for a dating profile, it’s just undignified for a murder story. I feel it shows very poor judgment on the part of the news agencies that ran this photo especially when many others where available. It seems like a not so subtle attempt to insert sexuality and possibly very subtle racism into this story. Here is the photo; judge for yourself.
The video below by ABC News shows more dignified images of this young lady. Many other news reports only have the above mentioned photo.
