A 52-year old ex-police officer?who just retired in January, has apparently killed two of his three daughters, some of his pets, and then himself. This horrifying carnage occurred in the home of Glen Hochman, in suburban Harrison, New York.

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Hochman, who stepped down from the White Plains police force after 22 years, and who was recently honored for saving a man’s life, appears to have shot his 17-year-old daughter Alissa, his 13-year-old daughter Deanna, pets including one or more dogs, and then himself. Hochman’s wife and the couple’s oldest daughter were not home at the time of the multiple murders.

Harrison is a quiet suburb north of the Bronx, New York City, and surrounded by other relatively sedate towns such as White Plains, Mamaroneck, and Scarsdale. The news of these domestic killings has sent shock waves throughout the area, and has even garnered coverage in international media such as The Malaysian Digest and the Daily Mail in Britain.

What is particularly startling to people outside of the Harrison and White Plains community, who personally knew these people, is that a member of a police department committed these heinous acts. This case of domestic abuse in Harrison, supposedly a bucolic northern neighborhood of New York City, seems much more confusing and atypical. Or is it?

According to an article in the Atlantic, evidence of domestic-abuse problems in police departments around the US is overwhelming. There have been studies that showed that police officers are 2 to 4 times more likely to be involved in a domestic-violence dispute, even though a set database has not been set to track these incidents.

Is it the easy availability of guns? Is it pressure resulting from this line of work? There are many questions revolving around this particular case, and the problem at large.There is also the puzzling aspect that Hochman also shot and killed two or more pets in his household. Did he project his anger onto them? Were they in the way of killing his children or himself? Did he wish to silence them?


Are perpetrators of domestic violence more likely to kill their spouses or significant others, rather than their children? Are people also more shocked that this horrible story took place in a suburb, rather than in a city? Do people expect greater and more frequent violence in urban settings rather than suburban? So many questions come to mind in light of these types of tragedies.

In contrast though, NYC recently went 11 days without a murder.Overall, a sad story, which touches upon many sorrowful themes.

 

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