Violence Free MN honors 30 lives lost to domestic violence in 2020
Here is a look at the 30 victims and the implications of their deaths:
21 were killed by a current or former intimate partner
All but one identified as women
Nine family members and bystanders are included as they were murdered in domestic violence related situations
Of those, four were friends or family members attempting to intervene and three were children under the age of two, killed alongside their mother.
Four women were pregnant at the time of their murder
At least 20 minor children are now left without a parent due to intimate partner violence.
"Unfortunately a lot of agencies saw throughout the pandemic a decrease in the number of calls to crisis lines across the state, but the calls that were coming in were a lot more severe. So it was a lot more physical assaults, a lot more chokings, stabbings, threats with a weapon things like that," said Christie Larson, Executive Director of Southern Valley Alliance.