EDMONTON The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) released statistics Friday showing a 13 per cent rise in the number of domestic violence victims it encountered last year compared to the year prior. It said in 2020 there were 9,545 violence victims compared to 8,406 in 2019. Police also said the number of serious assaults related to domestic violence increased dramatically. The number of violent assaults causing bodily harm and/or with a weapon increased by 31.6 per cent, said Insp. Sean Armstrong with the EPS serious crimes branch during a Thursday media availability. This unsettling trend includes one of the most serious forms of violence, that being strangulation.
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The most severe kinds of domestic violence rose in Edmonton last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, police said Thursday.
There were 34 domestic violence incidents involving firearms in 2020, predominantly handguns, which is a 54 per cent increase from 22 in 2019, according to police data. Knives were used against 155 victims, and aggressors used a substance to burn 35 victims, up 25 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively, from the year before. There were four domestic homicides in 2020 and two in 2019.
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