And Then Came The Blues

ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, in the United States, an average of twenty-four people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, and one in three women have experienced some form of domestic violence. One of those women was Katrina Brownlee, who as a twenty-two-year-old mother of two experienced hell at the hands of her then-fiancé. He was a law enforcement officer-a group two to four times more likely than the general population to be abusive, and who are known for protecting their own. During his dangerous outbursts, Brownlee would call the police for help, only to see the cops turn their backs on her when her abuser flashed his badge. On a cold January morning in 1993, her fiancé shot her ten times and left her for dead.

Brownlee could have been just one more of the eleven females killed per minute worldwide by a loved one. Instead, miraculously, she survived. Through hard work, faith, and perseverance, she recovered from her injuries and found a path through her trauma. She decided to become a police officer to help others in her situation, to be the “good cop” who had not been there for her when she had needed saving.

In 2021, she retired from a highly decorated twenty-year career with the NYPD. As the founder of a support group for at-risk young women, Young Ladies of Our Future, Brownlee decided that the time had come to tell her story-the whole story-of self-empowerment, of healing generational trauma, and of turning pain into hope for herself and her community.

Author Biography

KATRINA BROWNLEE a retired NYPD police officer, is a sought-after speaker regarding her triumph over domestic violence; she also regularly teaches seminars to law enforcement officers on managing domestic violence incidents. Her story has been profiled on CBS’s 48 Hours and in the New York Times. Brownlee has received many accolades for her mentorship work as the founder of Young Ladies of Our Future, a nonprofit organization serving at-risk young women.The organization’s mission is to heal the wounds of interpersonal violence, build self-esteem, and promote health and wellness so young women can achieve their goals and live successful lives. Brownlee also established Can’t Be Silenced, an organization working on solutions to the urgent domestic violence crisis.