ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Football star and actor O.J. Simpson died at 76 on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, his family announced. Simpson's legacy was forever overshadowed by the 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

While Simpson was acquitted of the double murders in his 1995 trial, he was found liable for their deaths during a civil trial.

The country also began to see a shift in how it viewed the issue of domestic violence, particularly spousal abuse.

What You Need To Know

  • The lead detective in the O.J. Simpson case spoke on domestic violence awareness since the trial

  • Tom Lange spent 30 years investigating the case before during and after the trial, and he wrote a book on it and is in the process of writing another

  • If you or someone you know needs help, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233

As those trials took place, calls to hotlines, shelters and police dramatically increased with reports of domestic abuse.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s lead detective on the O.J. Simpson double murder case spoke on the phone with Spectrum News 1's Wendy Wright after hearing the news of Simpson's death.

Tom Lange spent 30 years investigating the case before during and after the trial. He wrote a book on it and is in the process of writing another.

Lange was the detective on the line with Simpson during the famous Bronco chase and is credited with talking O.J. out of taking his own life during that nationally televised chase.

Lange did not wish to talk on camera and had no comment on O.J. Simpson’s death. He did have thoughts, however, about how this case affects victims and survivors of domestic violence.

“This case hasn’t changed that there’s still domestic violence and people need to wake up to that," Lange said. “I am behind any movement that helps support the prevention of domestic violence. It’s a real thing and people should be aware of it.”

While there have been changes over the past three decades since the homicides, police, including the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, still respond daily to domestic violence calls.

“Any time that you put a limelight on something as important as domestic violence it’s a good thing, right?" Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Brendan Hurley. "So good things can come out of that. However, we still respond to domestic violence calls every day, multiple sometimes and you never know what you’re going to get. It’s a lot of emotions and it’s one of the most dangerous calls that a law enforcement officer can respond to."

Willow Domestic Violence Center reports more than 4,500 reports of domestic violence in Monroe County alone in 2022 with about 41,500 calls to 911 for domestic disputes and three domestic violence homicides.

On the national front, The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. That equates to more than 10 million women and men.

If you or someone you know needs help, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.