DOWNTOWN ROANOKE WALK CALLS ATTENTION TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Chase Purdy, Roanoke Times
October 13, 2012
Like many of the women who joined her at Elmwood Park in downtown Roanoke on Friday, Debra Williamson's life took an unexpected turn because of domestic violence.
On May 7, authorities in Roanoke charged her boyfriend, Roland Wendel Booher Jr., 32, with malicious wounding. Since then, she's been coping with court dates and reliving an experience she said wants to leave behind.
"It's been horrible," Williamson said, holding her fluffy cat, Sam, with a leash around his neck. "My life has just been upside down."
Williamson stood with nearly 200 others in the Family Violence Coordinating Council's fifth annual downtown walk to raise awareness of domestic violence. Many of them were linked by shared experience.
At 1 p.m., Williamson placed Sam in a pet stroller and walked alongside others as they made their way through city streets. Most of them wore purple in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, catching the attention of passers-by and motorists.
City leaders also were spotted walking with the crowd, including Police Chief Chris Perkins (who picked a lavender shirt for the occasion) and Councilman Sherman Lea.
"This city has made domestic violence a priority," Lea said. "Domestic violence can change day to day but seldom changes for the better until somebody intervenes."
For many, that somebody could be a counselor at one of the city's organizations dedicated to working with the victims of such domestic situations. Those organizations include Turning Point, Sabrina's Place and Total Action Against Poverty's domestic violence services.
For Sara Cole, a representative with the Family Violence Coordinating Council, the last two years the walks have come in the shadow of tragedies.
In the months leading up to the walk in 2011, Heather DeHart, 40, was killed by her husband, who then turned the gun on himself. Two months later, Jennifer Agee, 30, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a convenience store on Williamson Road. Her ex-husband has been charged with murder. Both women were survived by children.
And in late September this year, Roanoke County police responded to a Cave Spring home where they said Ronald W. Billings, 49, had shot dead Sandra Kay Edwards, 61, before turning the gun on himself. The couple were in the midst of divorce proceedings, and Edwards had complained before of domestic run-ins with her husband.
"Every year just prior to our walk, there's some event, some tragic event that occurs that just makes this walk more important," Cole said.
Less than a day before, authorities in Bedford County responded to a domestic dispute call in which a woman was stabbed. Kenneth Ray Fitzgerald, the woman's husband, was later charged with malicious wounding in the case.
Sammi Rader, a program coordinator at TAP, estimated the crowd was larger this year than last, a trend.
"It's constant," she said. "Domestic violence is a silent issue, and that's why it's so important that we have this walk."
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