Deterrents to Slaughter

Celebrations, such as birthdays, tend to bring out the best in people. But the emotions that soar during these normally happy occasions can also swing low and turn dangerous.

Sadly for Maria Navarro, her 27th birthday party in East Los Angeles turned into a blood bath as her estranged husband, Raymond Navarro, burst in and shot and killed her, her two aunts and her friend. He killed them after Maria Navarro had done her best to keep away a man with a history of threats and violence. She got a temporary restraining order and called 911 after a brother-in-law called her with a grim message: “Your husband is coming to kill you.” The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told a frantic Maria Navarro that officers were helpless until her husband showed up to make good on his threat. He did.

The most tragic aspect of these murders is that there were some things dispatchers could have done. One possibility is obvious: Since Navarro told the department that she had a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband, that information should have prompted the dispatch of a unit to drive by. Since 1984, New York City police have been required to respond to all 911 domestic cases.

There is another less obvious but valuable resource that the sheriffs failed to employ: Alittle-used state law allows for something called a telephonic temporary restraining order that makes it possible for officers to arrest a potentially violent person before he strikes.

According to Hugh McIsaac, director of family court services of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, this is how it would typically work: After a threat of violence, a woman would call 911. The law enforcement agency would dispatch an officer, then call a family court services “referee,” who can be reached nights, weekends and holidays, and ask for a temporary restraining order that would be in effect until 5 p.m. the next day or the next court day. If the person who made the threat showed up while the officer was there, he could be arrested on the spot if he refused to leave. In Los Angeles County alone, there were nearly 40,000 domestic violence- related calls in 1987. Yet this year through July, telephone restraining orders were requested only 39 times.

Getting a restraining order by phone takes only 5 to 10 minutes. Enough time, perhaps, to save a life. Maybe not. Law enforcement authorities argue that a person with a history of violence, in possession of the ubiquitous handgun and hellbent on murder will find a way to do it. That may well be. But we can’t help thinking of what might have been for Maria Navarro, her two aunts, her friend-- and thousands of women like them.