November 5, 2007 mlive klemmer

NOVEMBER 05, 2007: NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Update: Abuse allegations in murder-suicide
Posted by llupo
November 05, 2007 22:33PM
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2007/11/abuse_allegations_in_plainwell.html

OTSEGO -- A 31-year-old woman slain by her husband, a Plainwell police officer, told him she planned to leave him before he allegedly shot her and then himself in a murder-suicide, friends of the woman say."He tried to control everything she did," said Rich Klemmer, a friend of Pam Brainard. "When he thought he was going to lose her, he offed her."

Klemmer, who knew Brainard as a caring nurse who worked in Kalamazoo, left a bouquet of flowers on the Brainards' front porch this afternoon and briefly prayed.

Police believe Kevin Brainard, a seven-year officer with the Plainwell Public Safety Department and an Otsego firefighter, first shot his wife and then himself sometime Sunday night. She was discovered dead at their Brookside Drive home, while Kevin Brainard died later at the hospital.

The couple's 2-year-old daughter, Kayla, was in the home during the shootings but was not harmed.

Family and friends of Pam Brainard said she was in an emotionally abusive relationship, but was hesitant to go to police because her husband was an officer.

But Otsego Police Chief Gordon Konkle said police would have taken any complaint seriously."Nothing was ever reported," he said. "(Domestic violence) is just not tolerated any more. We would not cover it up."