On the Tuesday after July 4, a 40-year-old woman was arguing with her longtime boyfriend in their Villa Park home when he grabbed her, put her in a headlock, punched her in the face and strangled her.
The woman reached for anything she could use to defend herself and found a screwdriver, which she plunged into her boyfriend’s face, according to court records. He let go, and she ran out of their home, flagging down a passing driver for help.
The case is one of the nearly 60% of Denver’s ongoing felony domestic violence cases that involve strangulation — an act that greatly increases the risk that a victim of domestic violence will be killed and should raise immediate red flags for first responders, police officers and healthcare workers…