Will County Gazette

While House Bill 3317 was introduced too late to change her story, Cassandra Tanner-Miller hopes the legislation will bring happier endings for other victims of domestic violence. 

Earlier in May, Miller told her story on the Senate floor in support of the bill and the Domestic Violence Task Force Act that it creates. In September of 2019, Miller's infant son was shot over 10 times by his estranged father, Christopher Miller, who had broken into the Miller home intending to kill the entire family. Cassandra and her 9-year-old daughter were also beaten. After shooting the baby, Colton Miller, the father took his own life. 

"Unfortunately this is an extremely tragic ending to a story, but this is not uncommon, especially in Illinois," Miller told the Senate. "There are victims, families hiding, hoping and needing the prevention, the proactive ability instead of reactive ability within the state to work together on all intergovernmental levels so that way there is not another Colton Miller."

Christopher Miller was a former corrections officer and member of the Illinois National Guard. Despite the revocation of his firearm owners identification (FOID) card and many pleas by his former wife to the National Guard and the Illinois State Police to take further steps to ensure he wasn't armed, Miller did not surrender his firearm and was able to use it fatally on his son. 

Her son's tragic death sparked a campaign to end Illinois domestic violence both for the grieving mother and for her local representative, state Rep. David Welter (R-Morris). 

"[Colton] would have been 3 this year, and I should have him in my arms, but unfortunately, domestic violence doesn’t have boundaries," Miller said. "It has only one simple ending, and that’s what the abuser chooses."

Miller called on the Senate, the committee and the entire legislature to come together and protect Illinois' children.

"[...] Help protect the future for Illinois and all the families that are currently suffering at the hands of their abusers, and all the souls that are looking down right now, hoping that there will not be another statistic added," Miller said. 

House Bill 3317 cleared the legislature and was enacted in late May.