How The Enquirer reported on intimate partner violence leading to deadly mass shooting

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16 hours ago

When a mass shooting at a 21st birthday party in suburban Northern Kentucky claimed the lives of four people and wounded three others, it shocked Greater Cincinnati and made national headlines.
Information about the police inquiry into the July 6, 2024, shooting trickled out slowly at first. Several months later, after reviewing the detective's narrative of the investigation, I learned the root cause of the shooting: an escalating pattern of intimate partner violence.
I spent the better part of the last year working to piece the story together, including gathering official documents, interviewing experts and talking with the families of those killed. Those interviews and documents showed how offenders of intimate partner violence may not only abuse or even kill their significant other but also irrevocably harm others in their proximity.
Having done deep reporting on intimate partner violence in the past, I know that it's a complicated issue. It can be challenging to prosecute and convict offenders, and it's also difficult for victims of abuse to seek help.
Intimate partner violence affects as many as 10 million Americans every year. That's an average of 24 people per minute being abused by an intimate partner, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
More than a third of women in the U.S. and roughly a quarter of men have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime and inserting a gun into the equation exponentially increases the risk of homicide.
Delaney Eary, 19; Shane Miller, 20; Melissa 'Missy' Parrett, 44; and Hayden Rybicki, 20, all lost their lives as a result of such violence when a lone gunman walked into a home on Ridgecrest Drive in Florence, Kentucky, and started shooting at those inside.
While the news frenzy surrounding the shooting has since dissipated, the loved ones of those killed that night are forever changed by a single act of malice. I spoke with each of the families, who told me what life has been like over the past year, shared memories of their loved ones and described red flags that led up to the shooting.
It's because intimate partner violence is so prevalent, and too often deadly, that I felt it was important to tell this story.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How The Enquirer reported on dating violence as cause of mass shooting