Takara Hightower was talking with agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) at her home in Humble on September 22, 2022. Hightower, 34, was describing the ongoing violence she was experiencing at the hands of her husband, Gregory Hightower. Just days before, she had begun looking into filing a protective order. As she spoke, she held their infant in her arms, and the couple’s 3-year-old was nearby.
Her husband then came into the house, shot, and killed her in front of the officers and the children.
Hightower was one of at least 216 Texans killed in domestic violence homicides in 2022, according to a new report from the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV). The nonprofit coalition tracked and analyzed hundreds of homicides from 2022 and found it the second-highest number on record in the past 10 years, an 8 percent increase since 2021. The 216 victims included 179 women and 37 men, 17 people who were pregnant or had recently given birth, 19 teens and young adults, six people identifying as LGBTQ+, and 28 family members, friends, or bystanders.
