Report: Minnesota domestic violence deaths jumped in 2015

At least 34 people were killed in domestic violence deaths last year in Minnesota, up significantly from 23 in 2014, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women said Tuesday.

Among last year's deaths, at least 22 women were killed in cases where the attacker was a current or former husband, boyfriend, or male intimate partner, according to data in the coalition's annual Femicide Report (.pdf). The deaths left at least 17 minor children motherless.

In its 25 years collecting the data, the group said it's seen annual lows in the teens and highs in the 40s. Deaths for 2015 may end up higher than reported Tuesday.

In 2015, half of domestic violence homicides were committed with guns, and in more than one-third of the gun killings against women, the offender was prohibited from possessing a gun at the time, the group said.

The coalition said it was currently reviewing four additional cases and waiting for information on whether the deaths in those cases were domestic homicides.