It was a barbecue — friends, beer, music. No one was supposed to bring a gun.
But someone did. And 20-year-old Matthew Lierman of Baton Rouge is sitting in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of the first-degree attempted murder of Lindsay Font, his ex-girlfriend. She tried to leave the party without him, and he fired a bullet that went through the rear car window and hit her in the back of the neck.
Font was a victim of dating violence — a problem rarely discussed, but occurring so often among young women that statistics show one in four women have experienced abuse while involved in an intimate relationship. Although most situations do not end in attempted murders, experts say awareness of early warning signs can prevent a situation from elevating to life-threatening levels.
 
Shot in the neck
Font, a Southeastern University student and Lierman, a former Baton Rouge Community College student, separately attended a party on Jan. 6 at the East State Street apartment of a mutual friend, University sophomore Katie Burk. Although their three-and-one-half-year relationship had ended, the former couple remained friends.
That night, Lierman arrived at the party carrying a .38 caliber handgun.
Remy Simoneaux, Lierman’s friend and former University student, drove to the party with Lierman. He said they brought the gun to protect themselves from a group of “thugs” that had threatened them previously and who they suspected would be at the party.
Simoneaux said he wanted to leave the gun in the car, but Lierman insisted on bringing it inside.
Font and two of the friends she came with realized sometime during the party that Lierman had the gun. Simoneaux said he noticed the former couple arguing about the gun.
Around 12:50 a.m., Font and her two friends prepared to leave, and Font got in the car parked outside, still arguing with Lierman through the car window. Baton Rouge Police say Lierman walked behind the car and shot one bullet through the back window. The bullet went though the car seat and hit his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend in the back of the neck.
Simoneaux said Lierman, who BRPD later picked up nearby Simoneaux’s Violet Street apartment, did not mean to shoot Font.
“He just shot at the tire because he was mad,” Simoneaux said.
Simoneaux, who admitted he did not see Lierman fire the gun, said he thinks the gun recoiled after Lierman shot it, causing the bullet to fire into the car instead of at the ground.
Authorities rushed Font to the hospital where doctors stabilized her.
 
Previous Violence
Font told The Daily Reveille that Lierman had hit her before, after drinking alcohol. Lierman’s brother, Jonathan Lierman, said he had a “small history of violence.” But neither thought things would escalate to the use of firearms.
Mike Strain, Simoneaux and Lierman’s friend, said Lierman would never seriously hurt his ex-girlfriend.
“He was madly in love with her,” Strain said.
But Amber Vlasnik, manager of the LSU Women’s Center, said in many cases, friends and outsiders are unaware of the true nature of a relationship.
Vlasnik also said it often takes years for bad relationships to intensify to levels of physical violence.
“If you go on a date and someone hits you on the first date, you wouldn’t date him again,” Vlasnik said. “But it doesn’t happen like that.”
Vlasnik said it is crucial for women to watch for warning signs of future violence, such as verbal abuse, jealousy, calling excessively and isolation tactics — all behavior Vlasnik said she thinks can be found on campus.
The younger a relationship and the less time the couple shares, the easier it is to leave, Vlasnik said, which is why it is so crucial to watch for the warning signs, before the relationship — and the problem — get too serious.
 
In too deep
There are laws that can help someone get out of an abusive dating relationship, said Martha Forbes of the Baton Rouge Battered Women’s Center.
Louisiana has a “protection from dating violence” statute that allows anyone who has been in a romantic or intimate relationship, and feels he or she is in danger, to file for a Temporary Restraining Order in district or family court. The Temporary Restraining Order prohibits the alleged perpetrator from abusing, harassing, contacting or interfering with his or her accuser, and prohibits the perpetrator from going near the accuser’s residence or place of employment.
But the order lasts only 20 days. After that, the accuser must face his or her alleged abuser in court.
Vlasnik said sometimes, protective orders are not fulfilled because women are often afraid to confront their abusers in a hearing.
Forbes said the court must give the alleged perpetrator due process of law, so before a judge can issue a protective order and subject the defendant to the rules that accompany it, a judge must hear both sides of the case in a formal hearing.
If the judge issues a protective order, the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 prohibits the abuser from carrying or buying a firearm.
But Joanne Schmidt, director of the Domestic Violence Project in New Orleans, said it is the time directly after a woman decides to go to the police that can put her at the most risk of being killed.
Schmidt said 60 percent of women who are murdered by their intimate partner are murdered after they decide to leave the relationship. In fact, she said just last fall, she dealt with a woman who was murdered by her partner while the civil sheriff was delivering the temporary restraining order to him.
“It’s all about power and control,” Schmidt said. “When a woman makes a decision to get out of the relationship, he loses his control.”
This is why Schmidt said she tells women in those situations to leave with careful planning.
“We will hear women say, ‘He’s going to kill me,’ she said. “You have to plan for that.”
 
Awaiting trial
The court has not yet set a date for Lierman’s first hearing. In the meantime, those close to him say he will wait in jail.
Font said she was feeling fine a few days after the shooting. She spent the remainder of winter break at home with her family in Baton Rouge.