Mobile Police Officer Justin Billa's death Tuesday night has garnered sympathetic messages from around the U.S. But the death of 58-year-old Fonda Poellnitz also hasn't gone unnoticed.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Police Chief Lawrence Battiste, during a Wednesday news conference, linked Pollenitz's murder to an epidemic of domestic violence.
"We know that domestic violence cases are the most dangerous calls of action that a policeman can have," Stimpson said. "They happen every day not just in our community but across America."
Stimpson urged victims of domestic abuse to seek help, referencing the Penelope House in Mobile as a resource. The nonprofit shelter is one of about 15 agencies in Alabama providing services for women dealing with domestic violence.
"I give kudos to the mayor and police chief for recognizing her as a victim of domestic violence," said Tonie Ann Torrans, executive director with Penelope House. "When we see an officer go down, it's totally heartbreaking and overwhelming and if the focus was strictly on that, her death might not have been seen as important."
She added, "There are plenty of domestic violence homicides and I didn't want to see that overlooked."
Troubling statistics
The state's law officers dealt with 25,188 violent offenses in 2016, the most recent year surveyed by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Eighteen percent of those - 4,611 -- involved domestic abuse, assault or worse: 43 were homicides.
The 2016 statistics marked a notable increase from 2010, when domestic violence constituted 12 percent of the overall violent crimes committed. Of those 2,193 domestic offenses, 36 were homicides.
In both years, three-quarters of the victims in such cases were women. In both years, about half the victims were white and half were African-American.
Penelope House takes in 800-1,000 victims each year, a range that hasn't moved much in years, according to Torans. She said her shelter doesn't "turn people away" and has, at its highest level, sheltered 72 victims at once.
She said that Pollentiz's death "reminds everyone" about the social problem of domestic violence.
"In years past, when people looked at domestic violence, they think it's a family problem and might not affect them," Torrans said. "But it's not an isolated event. It impacts everyone in the community. One of the messages that comes out is that we don't see it just as a victim who died, but now it's a police officer who died."
'Challenging calls'
Pollentiz was shot and killed by her ex-husband, Robert Hollie, who then barricaded himself inside his house. He shot and killed 27-year-old Officer Billa while police set up a perimeter around the house.
Hollie was later found dead in the house from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Billa was the first law enforcement killed in the line of duty in Alabama from gunfire since 2012. But his murder comes at what law enforcement officials say is a recent and troubling rise of gun violence on police officers during the first two months of 2018. The most recent U.S. tragedy occurred on Wednesday, when an off-duty police officer was shot and killed while helping a woman during a domestic incident in Baltimore.
"Responding to a domestic call is often the most challenging an officer can make," said Steve Groeninger, spokesman with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit aimed at honoring officers and improving safety.
He said, "You really don't know what you're getting into when you arrive on the scene. Often tensions escalate to the point where someone calls authorities ... domestic disturbance calls are especially dangerous."
Said Battiste, Mobile's police chief: "Domestic violence is so impulsive. When you have impulsive violence, it's hard to predict what's next."
Joanne Barfield, executive director of Lighthouse Robertsdale - a shelter providing services to domestic violence victims in Baldwin, Escambia, Monroe and Conecuh counties - said the calls can lead to frustration.
"When a victim calls, they want someone to come out and intervene and stop the abuse," said Barfield. "But the victim can become too scared to prosecute. Sometimes it becomes a choice between abuse or homelessness and it's an easy decision for them to make especially when you have dependent children. Law enforcement is putting their lives on the line, and each time they go to that house, it gets more dangerous."
Legislative route
Lawmakers around the U.S. continue to look for ways to stem domestic violence, and some are aiming for stricter gun laws. In Georgia, for instance, legislation has surfaced requiring anyone served with a protective order to surrender or sell their gun to a licensed firearm dealer.
In Georgia, of 72 people killed in 2016 in connection with a domestic dispute, more than half were fatally shot. In Alabama, of the 43 domestic homicides in 2016, 63 percent were committed by someone wielding a firearm, state records show.
At present, Alabama is not looking at any proposal like the one in Georgia
Alabama lawmakers, however, are considering HB59, which would increase penalties against someone who commits domestic violence in front of a minor. The GOP-backed measure passed the House by a vote of 79-5, and has moved on to the Senate, where it awaits a committee hearing.
Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Good Hope, the House sponsor, said he hopes the new law will be enacted and can serve as an important deterrent.
"If a kid grows up in a house like that and knows that mom and dad act that way, they think the behavior is OK and may act like that someday when they become adults," Harbison said. "They should know it's not normal and that they shouldn't act like that."
Harbison, himself, is a former law enforcement officer, said the tense situations involving police and domestic offenses can be "difficult," but he admitted he wasn't sure if there was a legislative solution. "I am open to suggestions as far as ideas on what we can do to help fix the problem," he said.