By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
In the first four months of 2025, Bowling Green has seen a troubling increase in the number of reported domestic violence incidents.
From January through April, Bowling Green Police Division has investigated and made arrests in 19 cases of domestic violence. That is a jump from the 12 cases during the same period of 2024.
That increase is over a small window of time, so it’s unclear if this is a trend or a fluke. Then May came, and another seven domestic violence cases were reported in the city.
BGPD Deputy Chief Adam Skaff last week acknowledged he had noticed the uptick.
“What’s causing it, I don’t know,” Skaff said, noting that it’s no longer unusual to see multiple domestic violence incidents in one day.
“It could be that people are tired of it, and more willing to call it in,” he said.
In the police reports filed, officers often ask the victims if they have experienced violence from the same person in the past – and frequently the answer is yes. That helps give the police a more complete picture of the situation, Skaff said.
“It’s all bad, but is this the first time or the 10th time,” he said.
Officers at the scene offer to help victims fill out the Ohio Victims’ Rights Request Form, and make them aware of resources in the community that they might find helpful.
So far in June, it doesn’t appear the cases are slowing. In a period of two days last week, BGPD arrested three men for domestic violence.
- In one case, the woman was able to text her mom, who then called police. The woman reported her abuser allegedly slammed her up against the wall, then to the ground. Every time she tried to get up, he reportedly threw her to the ground again. The woman said she was able to open the window, screamed for help, and tried multiple times to escape. But each time she tried to jump out, her abuser allegedly pulled her back in by her belt. According to the police report, the suspect admitted that he pulled her back into the trailer and sat on her. Officers found blood on the victim’s mouth and shirt, on the carpet from the victim’s nose, and large scratch marks on her inner bicep area.
- In another case, the victim ran outside screaming for help, and was let inside by a neighbor. The woman reportedly told police that her abuser had body slammed her to the ground, and dug his fingers into her mouth. She ran outside screaming, hoping a neighbor would hear. The man allegedly told police he had pinned her to the ground, grabbed her phone because “she makes irrational decisions,” and dug his hands into her mouth. The woman told police they had prior altercations, but she never reported them because she didn’t want to jeopardize the man’s job.
- And in the third incident, a woman said her abuser had choked her, punched her multiple times in the head and the stomach, and spit in her face several times. The police report noted bruising under one of her eyes, and blood inside a nostril. According to the police report, the man told officers he hit her with a closed fist, threw her around and did a lot of “mean things.”
Those reports did not go unnoticed by Kathy Mull, executive director of the Cocoon, Wood County’s domestic and sexual violence agency providing shelter and advocacy services to survivors.
“The intense level of violence is disturbing to me,” Mull said.
Despite the increase in cases in Bowling Green, the Cocoon has not seen the same level of increases in cases countywide. In May of this year, the agency supported 98 domestic violence survivors – compared to 93 in May of 2024.
Mull surmised the uptick may be the result of increased awareness and of law enforcement having more tools to use in domestic violence cases. It’s been just two years since Ohio made strangulation a felony offense. Before that, Ohio was the only state in the U.S. that failed to recognize the potentially deadly act as a felony.
“They can hold them accountable when they use this egregious form of violence,” she said of strangulation.
Mull also cited the effects economic factors can have in homes where domestic violence is already occurring.
“I definitely think there are economic factors that contribute to domestic violence,” she said. “In homes where it’s already happening, and you add those stressors to a household, it can escalate the violence.”
