A shooting that killed seven people at a birthday party in Colorado Springs on Sunday appeared to be the result of domestic violence, according to Mayor John Suthers, highlighting a dark trend in the Pikes Peak region.

“We know that this is not a domestic terrorism incident, not an ideologically-driven crime,” Suthers told Gazette news partner KKTV. “It appears to be domestic violence — that there was a relationship here that the perpetrator was involved in, and unfortunately, we had a lot of bystanders who got killed.”

Sunday’s mass shooting underscored increasing concerns over the frequency and severity of domestic violence incidents here, advocates said.

It came after a year in which more than a quarter of the record 39 homicides in Colorado Springs were the result of domestic violence, up from 17% in 2019 and 18% in 2018.

Key details of Sunday’s violence remain unknown, but police said the alleged gunman was the boyfriend of one of the female adult victims — an all-too-familiar story for organizations that work to protect women from violence at the hands of their partners. The alleged shooter’s identity and those of the victims had not been officially released as of Monday evening.

Police provided no updates to their investigation Monday, and it remains unclear whether there was a history of prior attacks, any effort to obtain protective orders or any convictions against the gunman that should have barred him from possessing a weapon.

Authorities haven’t disclosed the type of weapon used or given details on where or when it was purchased.

After a year in which the pandemic kept many people stranded in their homes, some groups saw worrisome signs of an escalation in family violence.

“We’re going to extreme acts of violence quicker,” said Anne Markley, CEO of TESSA, El Paso County’s primary domestic violence prevention and support organization, which saw record-high numbers for call of assistance last year that haven’t let up this year.

Recent domestic-violence homicides include a March 2020 case in which police say a man fatally shot his wife and stabbed his mother-in-law 16 times despite several court-mandated protection orders.

In another case authorities said a man killed his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and her 17-year-old brother in an apartment south of Colorado Springs before taking his life in February 2021. The brother’s friend, who was also shot, died in the hospital a day later, authorities said.

Six of the seven homicides in El Paso County this year have been domestic related, according to police and relatives accounts.

Domestic violence has spawned other episodes of multiple murders in recent years, but “it’s hard to say why it keeps happening,” Markley said.

Why El Paso County is such a hot spot for potential cases of domestic violence is unknown, but Markley sees it as a sign of effective outreach.

Experts point to the pandemic increasing stressors and pushing families that were already on the brink over the edge.

What also has changed during COVID, Markley said, is there’s less time between the last phase of the cycle of abuse — the eruption of violence — to the first phase, the honeymoon period, called the cool-off stage, increasing the frequency of violent behavior.

Police found several children in the home. Experts raised concerns about their exposure to the violence. The children are now staying with relatives, according to police.

Children who become involved with or who witness a violent situation such as Sunday’s shooting can be left with traumatic stress, said Jamie Falasca, director of health care services for youth and family programs for Diversus Health, formerly AspenPointe, a nonprofit mental health organization in Colorado Springs.

That could cause emotional, psychological and physical harm, she said, such as sleeplessness, lack of concentration at school and reliving the ordeal in nightmares and while awake.

“Trauma shatters their sense of safety,” Falasca said.

Rebuilding that, she added, takes strong support from trusted adults.

TESSA’s safe line is available 24/7 at (719) 633-3819 or a live confidential chat from its website, https://www.tessacs.org/tessa-online-safe-line/.