Inside the startling violence that takes place in police homes

(This Magazine) February 14, 2018—Domestic violence takes place in up to a staggering 40 percent of law enforcement families. But police forces mostly ignore the problem, writes investigative journalist Alex Roslin in his award-winning book, Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence. The excerpt below is adapted from the book. His 2004 article in This about an RCMP officer who killed his ex-girlfriend was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

At 3 p.m. on April 26, 2003, Crystal Judson-Brame was speaking with her mother Patty on a cell phone while walking from her car to the pharmacy in a shopping mall parking lot.

“I think I see David,” she said referring to her estranged husband David Brame, the chief of the Tacoma Police Department, just south of Seattle. Brame had just pulled into the parking lot in another car with the couple’s two children.

Crystal’s father, Lane Judson, at home with Patty, told his wife, “If she sees him [David], tell her to get the hell out of there.”

But Crystal ended the call. “I gotta’ go, I gotta’ go, I gotta’ go,” she said.

Patty Judson tried to call her daughter back seven times in the next 12 minutes, but there was no answer. In the parking lot, Crystal returned to her car. But David slipped past her into the driver’s seat and sat with his feet on the ground, stopping her from getting into her vehicle. Witnesses heard raised voices.

“Oh no, don’t. Don’t!” Crystal was overheard saying.

David Brame suddenly pulled Crystal’s head down—or she may have crouched to protect herself; it’s not clear. The police chief drew his .45-calibre Glock service pistol and shot Crystal at point-blank range behind the left ear.

Crystal fell forward, a quarter turn to the right toward the rear of the car. David then shot himself in the right temple and fell backward while the couple’s two young kids sat in the other car nearby.

The children ran to their parents, their eight-year-old daughter screaming, “Daddy shot mommy! Daddy hurt mommy!”... Read the rest of the excerpt here.