That same week—April 16—in Annandale, Virginia, police also determined that former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, before killing himself, with their teenage children inside the house.
These are not anomalies. They are data points in a domestic violence crisis that has been allowed to persist for generations—and for which Black communities receive a fraction of the prevention resources they need.
Feminist criminologists have long identified the period of marital separation as among the most lethal for women. Research consistently shows that a woman’s risk of being killed by an intimate partner is highest in the weeks and months after she leaves or initiates a legal separation. These were not random eruptions of violence. They were predictable crises, and in both cases, the warning signs were visible.
These two cases have catalyzed a necessary national conversation, but that conversation must not flatten the racial dimensions of this crisis. All three victims were Black women. Both men were Black. And while domestic violence crosses every racial and economic line, the data are unambiguous: Black women bear a disproportionate share of its lethal consequences.
Mental health disparities in the Black community are the predictable result of structural racism embedded in employment, education, housing, and healthcare. When financial stress, legal crisis, and inadequate mental health access converge in a household already navigating the volatility of separation, the risk of domestic violence escalates. That is not a mystery. It is a policy failure.
At the same time, access to culturally competent mental health care for Black men experiencing crisis—the other side of this equation—remains severely limited. Programs like the YBMen Project, which creates peer-supported spaces for young Black men to address mental health openly, represent a promising model. But they are chronically underfunded relative to the scale of need. Shamar Elkins sought help at a VA hospital. Justin Fairfax’s mental health deterioration was documented in court records, where a judge noted his condition was “very concerning.” In neither case did the available systems succeed in intercepting the trajectory toward violence.
First, family courts must develop robust lethality assessment protocols triggered by the conditions most associated with intimate partner homicide: recent or pending separation, history of coercive control, access to firearms, and deteriorating mental health in the respondent. These assessments exist, but they are not universally required or resourced.
Third, the mental health dimension of domestic violence cannot be treated as separate from prevention. Expanded access to affordable, culturally competent mental health services—particularly for Black men in economic and legal crisis—is not a peripheral concern. It is central. This means funding community mental health infrastructure, not just crisis hotlines, and ensuring VA mental health services reach veterans before, not after, a household is in acute danger.
Dr. Cerina Fairfax was, by every account, a devoted mother and a well-regarded dentist who had done everything the legal system asked of her: she filed for divorce, she sought custody, she cooperated with court proceedings. The mothers of Elkins’ children were also navigating a system meant to protect them. Our legal system failed both.
We failed these families. And we cannot afford to fail anyone else.
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988. In emergencies, call 911, or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider.
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