Nila Kartika Wati
In the quiet hours before dawn on a humid Sunday in June 2021, the neighborhood of Biloxi, Mississippi, was transformed into a tactical theater. Police officers were positioned on residential rooftops, and K-9 units scoured the lawn of a local home. For Renata Flot-Patterson, the sight—which she described as being "lit up like Las Vegas"—was the immediate confirmation of her deepest fears. Her daughter, Keli Mornay, had been living in a state of escalating terror, a situation that culminated in a tragedy that has become an alarming trend across the state.
Nine days prior to that morning, on May 28, Mornay had filed for a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, Byrain Johnson. Her petition detailed a year-long ordeal of physical and verbal abuse. In her own words, she stated she was "in complete fear for my life, our infant son and my two other children." Although the court granted the protective order on June 2, it proved to be a hollow shield. On June 6, Mornay and her seven-month-old son, Brixx, were shot to death in their home. Johnson subsequently took his own life.
Mornay’s death is not an isolated incident but a data point in a harrowing public health crisis. Nationwide, pregnant and postpartum women die by homicide more frequently than from any obstetric-related cause. In Mississippi, this crisis is at its most acute. According to an analysis of 28 states by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Trace, Mississippi leads the United States in pregnancy-related gun deaths. For every 100,000 births in the state, approximately 15 individuals who were either pregnant or had been pregnant within the previous year were victims of gun violence.
The Intersection of Pregnancy and Intimate Partner Violence
The correlation between pregnancy and increased vulnerability to violence is well-documented by reproductive epidemiologists. Experts suggest that pregnancy often shifts the power dynamics within a relationship. As a woman seeks prenatal care or begins to focus on the needs of an impending child, an abusive partner may feel a perceived loss of control. This loss of dominance frequently triggers an escalation from verbal or physical abuse to lethal violence.
In Mississippi, the statistics reveal a stark racial disparity. Between 2018 and 2024, 36 pregnant or recently pregnant women were killed by firearms in the state. Of those victims, 81 percent were Black women. This disparity highlights a complex overlap of systemic racism, economic instability, and lack of access to protective resources.
Stacey Riley, CEO of the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence, emphasizes that the mortality rate among pregnant women in Mississippi is increasingly driven by external violence rather than medical complications. "We have women in Mississippi who are dying during pregnancy—not because they have medical problems, but because they are being beaten to death or shot and killed in their own home," Riley stated.
A Chronology of Systemic Failure: The Case of McKayla Winston
The tragedy in Biloxi was preceded by a similar case 200 miles north in Goodman, Mississippi. In June 2019, McKayla Winston was preparing for the birth of her first child. She was last seen by her mother, Yvetty Brown, on June 28 while planning a baby shower. Three days before her due date, Winston’s body was discovered on a desolate stretch of road near Highway 17 in Holmes County.
The legal aftermath of Winston’s death illustrates the hurdles within the Mississippi justice system. The father of the child, Terence Sample, was charged with kidnapping and two counts of capital murder. Despite the gravity of the charges, Sample was released on bond nearly four months after his arrest. Six years later, the case remains open with no trial date set. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has indicated that the state crime laboratory is still investigating the case, a delay that has left the family in a state of perpetual mourning and frustration.
The lack of swift judicial resolution in such cases often serves as a deterrent for other victims seeking help, reinforcing a cycle where abusers operate with a sense of impunity.
Legislative Inertia and the "Boyfriend Loophole"
Policy analysts point to Mississippi’s lenient firearm regulations as a primary driver of the high homicide rates among pregnant women. Research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine indicates that women are five times more likely to be killed if an abusive partner has access to a firearm.
Despite these findings, Mississippi remains one of the states with the fewest restrictions on gun ownership. In the 2024 legislative session, Republican State Senator Brice Wiggins introduced Senate Bill 2339, which sought to criminalize the possession of firearms and ammunition for individuals subject to domestic abuse protection orders or those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors. The bill aimed to align state law with existing federal regulations, which are often not enforced at the local level in Mississippi.
The bill died in committee on February 12, 2024. Senator Wiggins expressed disappointment, noting that the legislation was intended to save the lives of both victims and the law enforcement officers who respond to domestic disturbances. The failure of such measures leaves a significant gap in the state’s ability to disarm known threats, often referred to as the "boyfriend loophole," where unmarried partners or those without children together may not fall under certain state-level restrictive categories.
The Role of Reproductive Healthcare Access
The landscape of maternal safety in Mississippi was further complicated by the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which originated in the state and ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade. Since the implementation of near-total abortion bans, reproductive advocates have reported a surge in "reproductive coercion"—a form of abuse where partners sabotage birth control or force the continuation of a pregnancy to maintain control over a victim.
Preliminary research suggests that restrictive abortion access can increase intimate partner violence by 7 to 10 percent. For women in Mississippi, where the average one-way travel distance to an abortion provider is now 358 miles, the ability to escape an abusive situation tied to an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy has been severely curtailed. Organizations like Access Reproductive Care (ARC) Southeast have reported a 66 percent increase in calls from Mississippi residents, many of whom are navigating domestic violence alongside reproductive crises.
Community-Led Violence Interruption
While domestic violence accounts for a significant portion of these deaths, others are the result of community-wide gun violence. In 2021, Keyunta McWilliams, eight months pregnant, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Jackson. The shooting targeted her ex-boyfriend, but McWilliams and her unborn child were the casualties. Two men, Kenya Webster and Joseph Brown, were eventually convicted in the case.
In response to such tragedies, community members in south Jackson have turned to grassroots intervention. Geno Womack, a violence interrupter with the group Operation Good, works to address the root causes of conflict before they escalate to gunfire. Womack’s work involves patrolling neighborhoods, de-escalating verbal altercations, and providing social services to alleviate the pressures of poverty and illiteracy that often fuel aggression.
"Law enforcement is only reactionary; they only come after it’s too late," Womack observed. "We’re there before it even starts."
Broader Implications and the Path Forward
The crisis of pregnancy-related homicides in Mississippi serves as a barometer for the state’s overall societal health. Epidemiologists like Rebecca Lawn of Harvard University argue that the prevention of violence against women must be integrated into maternal healthcare strategies.
In Mississippi, the challenge is compounded by "maternity care deserts," where a lack of hospitals and specialized providers means many pregnant women have no consistent point of contact with the healthcare system. This lack of interaction removes a critical opportunity for providers to screen for domestic abuse and offer resources.
Efforts to mitigate this crisis are currently fragmented. While some organizations provide training for law enforcement on how to better respond to domestic violence calls, the high turnover rates in police departments and the lack of mandatory state-level firearm relinquishment laws hinder progress.
Experts conclude that reducing the rate of pregnancy-related gun deaths will require a multi-faceted approach: strengthening state-level firearm restrictions for domestic abusers, expanding access to reproductive healthcare, and increasing funding for both maternal health services and community violence interruption programs. Without a cohesive policy response, the intersection of pregnancy and gun violence will continue to claim lives in Mississippi at a rate that far outpaces the rest of the nation.
