CINCINNATI — The man who allegedly stabbed three people to death in College Hill on Thursday had prior charges against one of the victims.
Anthony Mathis, 66, died from self-inflicted stab wounds at UC Medical Center after Cincinnati police arrested him following an hours-long SWAT standoff.
Last April, Mathis was charged with choking and domestic violence against Patricia McCollum, one of the three people officers found dead inside the home after taking Mathis into custody.
According to the criminal complaint, McCollum said Mathis, her son-in-law, “choked her, causing her pain to her neck and lifting her off the ground at the same time.”
A judge granted McCollum’s request for a temporary restraining order.
A grand jury declined to indict Mathis on the strangulation charges. Months later, the domestic violence charge was “dismissed for want of prosecution.”
In 2022, Mathis was convicted of waiving weapons, including a machete, at other people.
Police have not identified a motive in Thursday’s stabbing deaths.
Strangulation charges are considered a felony
In 2023, Senate Bill 288 made Ohio the last state in the country to consider strangulation a felony, not a misdemeanor.
That distinction is “very important,” said Maria York, policy director for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network.
“If it’s not lethal at that first incident, it’s going to happen again, and it could be fatal,” York said.
She said the ODVN is working with the medical and law enforcement community to educate the signs and dangers of strangulation since “there’s often no physical marks” after an incident.
“For those that have been strangled, connecting them with an advocate is so important, because they can think of a safety plan, they can talk about the lethality around strangulation and they can link them to resources so that they can make better, informed choices on their next steps,” York said.
Here are some specific resources around safety planning [odvn.org] and a guide for family and friends [odvn.org] to help someone they know in an abusive relationship.
Women Helping Women
There’s never an incident or point during abuse that’s too minor or major for a survivor to reach out to an advocate, said Kristin Shrimplin, president & CEO of Women Helping Women.
The agency serves nearly 9,000 survivors and partners with law enforcement so their advocates can respond to domestic violence calls.
“It’s unique in this state and in most of the nation,” she said. “We ask (victims) a crucial question: What would you like to see happen now? And what does help look like?”
Among the options for support that the agency can provide are physical, mental, legal and financial.
“Instead of thinking that we as a system or an entity knows what's best, our responsibility is to collaborate, work together and then show up and ask the key question of survivors: ‘What would you like to see happen now?’” Shrimplin said.
Advocates pick up the phone 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
“I want to be really clear with survivors. You can call us at any point, as often as you need, as often as you want,” she said.
Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, financial exploitation, physical violence, sexual violence or other threats are all experiences that survivors are having, she said: “Gender-based violence is about power and control and isolation … we’re going to answer.”
If you need help, call or text the Women Helping Women hotline: 513-381-5610.
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