{"id":4785,"date":"2026-06-20T11:03:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4785"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:03:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:03:43","slug":"toddlers-deaths-in-orange-highlight-disturbing-domestic-violence-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4785","title":{"rendered":"Toddlers\u2019 deaths in Orange highlight disturbing domestic violence trend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over 100 mourners gathered last week around a memorial of flowers and photos to remember two young sisters slain by their father \u2014 another in a frustratingly long line of domestic violence tragedies.<\/p>\n

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Tiana Rae Watts was 2. Her sister, Jaliyah Katherine Watts, had not yet celebrated her first birthday. They were shot and killed inside their Orange County apartment by Bryant Darrell Watts, 33, a convicted felon, who then killed himself, according to the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office. The little girls\u2019 mother, Jasmine Jackson, 21, had been reportedly chased by Watts just before the shooting but was not injured.<\/p>\n

At the June 11 vigil, held at the same complex where the girls were shot, Jackson was embraced by friends and family, too emotional to speak. Some in the crowd wore t-shirts printed with the girls\u2019 photos. They held candles, the flames fizzling in the evening drizzle.<\/p>\n

The deaths of Tiana and Jaliyah Watts represent a national statistical dichotomy.<\/p>\n

Overall homicides in the United States have fallen for four consecutive years, according to FBI data analyzed by the Washington Post. Yet family and intimate-partner killings have moved in the opposite direction \u2014 accounting for roughly 1 in 5 U.S. homicides today, up from approximately 1 in 7 in 2020. The Post story, published June 6, noted three fathers in the U.S. killed their children that week, including a man in South Florida who police say stabbed his daughters and their mother to death before taking his own life.<\/p>\n

Domestic violence experts say the cases, while shocking, are part of a known pattern, that children of abused mothers are often collateral damage. More needs to be done, they say, to recognize signs of domestic violence and act more quickly to prevent an escalation.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are another weapon that is used by the abuser,\u201d said Bethany Backes, a University of Central Florida professor and expert on intimate partner violence. \u201cWhether they directly harm the children or threaten to harm the children \u2013 all of those things are tactics used by abusers to terrorize the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

But criminal justice systems fail again and again to police domestic violence effectively, Backes and other experts say. Sometimes judges don\u2019t have a full picture of the risks a victim faces, like an abuser\u2019s access to weapons and prior threats to kill, and release men arrested on domestic violence charges quickly, with little to keep them away from the women they\u2019re accused of hurting. And sometimes the victims make enforcement more challenging by refusing to detail the risks, because of emotional attachment to the abuser, dependency, or fear.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Watts, for example, was arrested in February, accused of hitting Jackson and making her face bleed. His arrest, first court appearance and release all happened on the same day. In court, a judge removed a provision noted in his arrest warrant for \u201cno contact\u201d with Jackson, saying he could have contact as long as it wasn\u2019t \u201chostile or violent,\u201d court records show.<\/p>\n

Watts wasn\u2019t present for his pre-trial hearing June 4, one day before the shooting. He had another hearing scheduled for June 23.<\/p>\n

Backes is currently researching what happens in domestic violence cases in the 12 months after a defendant\u2019s first court appearance \u2013 a period she describes as one of the most dangerous for victims. Early data shows that the judicial system\u2019s response often doesn\u2019t match the threat, or that protections for the victims listed in court documents aren\u2019t enforced.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, an arrest warrant was issued for Watts on a domestic violence battery charge after an employee at a walk-in medical clinic saw him hitting Jackson while the two were in a car and then saw Jackson inside the clinic bleeding from her head, court records show.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The witness saw Jackson try to leave the vehicle, only to be pulled back inside, the responding officer wrote in an affidavit. A few minutes later, Jackson got out of the car holding a baby. Watts got out, grabbed the baby from her and then drove off, the witness said.<\/p>\n

The employee called the police, but Jackson told the responding officer her injuries weren\u2019t caused by Watts and instead the result of a \u201cstampede\u201d at a downtown club the previous night. Jackson refused to answer any questions from a \u201clethality threat assessment,\u201d the questionnaire used by law enforcement to assess whether a domestic violence incident is likely to turn fatal.<\/p>\n

She also did not want to press charges, but the officer, citing the witness\u2019 testimony, actively bleeding facial injuries and Watts\u2019 \u201chistory of violence,\u201d believed Watts caused her injuries and issued a warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n

Jackson was driven by ambulance from the clinic to Orlando Regional Medical Center. In addition to the wound at her temple, her \u201clips were swollen and bloody\u201d and an ankle was bruised, the officer wrote.<\/p>\n

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Watts was a convicted felon, the document said, but while it noted a history of violence, it did not describe the past convictions.<\/p>\n

At Watts\u2019 first court appearance, the judge imposed a ban on Watts possessing a gun, but he obtained one anyway, as he\u2019d done previously.<\/p>\n

Watts was arrested in 2014 for possessing a Glock 9 mm handgun as a convicted felon and in 2017 for carrying a concealed Glock .45-caliber pistol without a permit, according to Orange County court records.<\/p>\n

Backes said firearm restrictions in domestic violence cases are inconsistently enforced. Some police jurisdictions send officers to physically collect weapons. Others accept a signed statement they\u2019ve been transferred to a family member.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do a great job of taking away firearms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nationally, nearly 7 in 10 intimate partner homicides are committed with a firearm, according to CDC data analyzed by Everytown.<\/p>\n

Abraham Salinas, director of the Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence University of South Florida\u2019s college of public health, said children killed in domestic violence homicides are not, in most cases, the primary target. But in up to 40% of domestic violence cases, they end up as victims, too.<\/p>\n

In cases where a father kills his children and then dies by suicide, Salinas said the violence is rarely random or spontaneous. Screenings for domestic violence at places where families already go, including doctor\u2019s offices, could help. But many victims are never asked if they face violence from partners or family members, he said.<\/p>\n

Infants and toddlers face the highest risk of getting caught in violence at home, he said, as they cannot call for help or tell a neighbor, a teacher or doctor what is happening inside their home.<\/p>\n

Children who attend daycare or are old enough to attend school have, at minimum, a set of adult eyes on them each day \u2013 teachers who might notice bruises, changes in behavior or signs of fear and are required to report suspected abuse to authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity connectedness is a protective factor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Better intervention programs for abusive men could help, too, Salinas said, but most of those arrested on domestic violence charges never complete such a program.<\/p>\n

Whenever there is a domestic violence homicide in Orange County, Michelle Sperzel checks the Harbor House database. The CEO of Harbor House of Central Florida, the county\u2019s domestic violence shelter, looks for a phone call, an intake, any record of contact. What she\u00a0finds, consistently, is nothing, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we find, unfortunately, is that it\u2019s someone who has never reached out to Harbor House,\u201d Sperzel said. \u201cAnd that in itself is the missing piece. There are resources that are here and available for someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issues that keep abused women from coming forward have intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic, including financial pressure and online monitoring or harassment. Physical violence has also increased, she said.<\/p>\n

Overall, Harbor House has been serving more people in recent years, but Sperzel said Harbor House has not yet solved how to help women who don\u2019t know about its services, don\u2019t trust outsiders or don\u2019t believe, despite what they are facing, that they deserve help.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a survivor myself\u2026 I think the biggest thing that I always think of is that it\u2019s the shame that goes along with it,\u201d she said. \u201cThat the person that you love and care about is treating you so poorly. In your mind, you\u2019re like, \u2018I deserve better than this\u2019 but at the same point, it\u2019s hard to get out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The death of two toddlers in Orange county highlight a disturbing domestic violence trend and the difficulty of preventing such tragedies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nToddlers\u2019 deaths in Orange highlight disturbing domestic violence trend - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4785\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toddlers\u2019 deaths in Orange highlight disturbing domestic violence trend - 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