The Tri-County Protective Agency marked Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a candlelight vigil October 28 in Bradwell Park.

With help from the 1/306 Infantry Battalion, 497 luminaries were placed around the park, one for each of the individuals the TCPA has served from January 1, 2021, to October 27, 2022.

Remembered in special tributes were those lost to domestic violence — Rosemary Michael, Madison Bishop, Kecia Latoya Exley, Sashya Allwood- Cato and Terrica Williams.

Williams was killed by her husband in July, who then took his own life. Allwood-Cato, a photographer, was killed in September by her husband in Long County, who then committed suicide, according to authorities. Exley was shot and killed in Pembroke by her husband in May 2021. Bishop’s boyfriend stands accused of her death in June 2021 in Richmond Hill. Michael was shot and killed in January 2021.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than 10 million Americans will experience domestic violence each year. NCADV statistics also show that 37.4% of Georgia women and 30.4% of Georgia men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence and/or stalking in their lifetimes.

Georgia domestic violence programs answered 52,282 crisis calls in 2019 and domestic violence shelters across the state provided shelter to 7,214 victims of domestic violence in fiscal year 2019. More than 4,000 were turned away because of a lack of bed space.

The state also had the 10th highest rate of women murdered in 2017 by men, and there were 149 domestic violence-related fatalities in Georgia in 2017.