Protection Order Could Not Protect Yet Another Ohio Woman

A woman was shot earlier this week by her estranged husband, who took her and their one-year-old daughter hostage. The assailant released the baby then shot himself. He died yesterday in the hospital.

The woman, 22-year-old Celia Hatfield, was scheduled to obtain a civil protection order against him this coming Tuesday. That is three Ohio women attacked either with protection orders in place, or in this latest case, with an order being readied. The first two women -- in Canal Winchester (shooting victim) and Portsmouth (stabbing victim) -- died after being attacked by their estranged husbands.

The protection from such civil orders is as thin as the paper they are printed on.