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One spring afternoon in 2022, Leslie was home alone in Park Slope with her 15-year-old son, Hunter. She asked him to clean his room, or take a shower, or something innocuous — she can’t remember exactly. He viewed her request as too demanding and flew into a violent rage. As he lunged for her, she sprinted into the bathroom and locked the door. He tried to kick it down while she sat on the closed toilet lid and stared at her phone, debating whether to call 911.
Leslie, who asked that she and her son go by pseudonyms, had reason to be afraid. Her son is a full head taller than her, not including the shock of curly brown hair. In a previous conflict, he had punched her in the face so hard that he broke her glasses; on another occasion, he had verbally threatened her life.
Ultimately, she couldn’t bring herself to call the police for fear that they might shoot Hunter if he didn’t comply with their orders. “I decided to risk him hurting me instead,” she said. Hunter eventually wore himself out, but Leslie stayed inside the bathroom until her husband came home, just in case.
