According to police, a beloved Texas educator was killed while rescuing a companion from an abusive relationship, and the alleged shooter is still at large.
According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, Dmitri Humphrey, 28, allegedly shot Shantavia Reddick, 26, and her dog dead on Saturday after Reddick intervened in a domestic violence incident to defend a friend.
According to police, Reddick went to her friend’s residence as tensions escalated when her friend attempted to flee an abusive relationship with Humphrey.
“Reddick sacrificed her own life to save her friend’s,” Gonzalez wrote on Facebook.
Humphrey, who is also sought for an unrelated felony warrant, fled the scene in a white Jeep with the Texas license plate TFN-4278 and has been on the run ever since, according to Gonzalez.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office requests that anyone with information contact Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (8477), submit a tip online at crime-stoppers.org, or use the Crime Stoppers Houston app.
Meanwhile, Reddick’s death left a void in the Spring Independent School District in Houston, where she taught third grade since 2020, as well as in the community, her family, and her mourning friends.
She matriculated from Prairie View A&M University in 2020 and was named the 2021–2022 school year’s rookie teacher of the year.
The school district released a statement saying that it was “deeply saddened by the death of one of our third-grade teachers, Ms. Shantavia Reddick.”
“Ms. Reddick, who had worked for Spring ISD since 2020, was a beloved member of the Smith Elementary School team.” This is a devastating loss not only for Spring ISD, but for public education as a whole. Our thoughts are with her family during this difficult time.”
According to data from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), the United Nations characterized the dramatic increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 epidemic as the “Shadow Pandemic,” which has not abated since.
Domestic violence cases climbed by 25% to 33% globally from 2020 to 2021, according to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, the first year of the pandemic.
“We are still experiencing a really high contact volume at the National Domestic Violence Hotline,” NCADV CEO Katie Ray-Jones said in a June interview with Fox News Digital. “Approximately a 25% increase in contact volume.”
“Many companies are still doing at-home or hybrid work, and so many employees are still working at home with their abusive partner.”