JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Army Sergeant Brittney Silvers was shot to death on the Fort Campbell's base last weekend. On Friday night her family in Jacksonville gathered for a memorial in her honor by Friendship Fountain.
Brittney's estranged husband Victor Silvers is facing six charges, including first-degree murder.
Judge Jason Fleming is the one who issued that "maximum" emergency restraining order for Brittney on October 9th, just a few days before she was killed on base.
"This is a wakeup call for military bases to make sure they have more communication, it's a wake-up call for everybody to not just rely on that sheet of paper. We all need to be more vigilant," said Judge Fleming, "a sheet of paper won’t stop a bullet."
He says more needs to be done to protect victims of domestic violence, especially on military bases. Since bases have their own database, they often will not have the same information as the county courts.
Even before Brittney was shot to death on base, Judge Fleming warned officials at Fort Campbell of the need to increase reports over restraining orders and injunctions, because, up until now, the court was only required to pass along restraining orders to the base if the threat was being made by a military member. In Brittney's case, Victor Silvers was a civilian, so the order was not required to be passed along.
The only other way the base would know about it is if someone like Brittney told a supervisor. But often, the victim is too fearful to speak up, her family said.
Fort Campbell says they were not aware of the order in this case, but that’s still under investigation by the FBI, who is the lead agency on the case.
Judge Fleming says a base counselor most likely still would have known about it, since they send a victim advocate to the restraining order hearings every Tuesday.
Victor Silvers is in the custody of the U.S. Marshall’s Office. While he is facing those six charges, he has not been indicted yet; he is waiting on a grand jury indictment.
He cannot enter a plea until the grand jury makes a decision on those indictments, then he will go back to court.
Until then, a judge has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf as a “default” until he can make his own plea.
According to an affidavit, SIlvers did confess to the shooting to the FBI.
The family of Brittney Silvers has hired prominent Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump to represent them in their daughter's death.