Print edition: 
A 21-year-old man was arrested early Friday morning after witnesses said he clubbed his father with a pool cue during an argument, police said.
Officers were called to the 1700 block of North Duck Cross Cove, off Webb Road between 13th and 21st streets, shortly after midnight. A 51-year-old man reported his son had hit him with a pool cue so hard that it broke, Lt. Doug Nolte said. Witnesses confirmed his story.
A week ago, the son had threatened to kill his father and pulled out a gun, Nolte said, but the father had not reported it to police. The assault with the pool cue convinced the father things were “getting out of control,” Nolte said, so he called 911 and provided police with details about the sequence of events over the past week.
Nolte called the incident an example of why domestic violence needs to be reported right away before it escalates into serious violence. Ten of the 27 homicides in Wichita last year involved domestic violence, prompting police officials to urge residents to report serious domestic incidents before they escalate to serious violence.
In most of last year’s domestic violence homicides, police had no knowledge of a history of violence in the relationship before someone was killed.
“This is just an example of a very serious incident happened several days ago that was not reported,” Nolte said of the gun being brandished. “It continued to escalate.
“Domestic violence is one of those things that needs to be reported when it happens,” he said. “It’s often a very hard cycle to break until someone actually steps in.”
