A Tenant overheard a domestic violence situation. Now what?!

[Sahana R.]

Hello BP family! I want to give a friend advice on a situation. However, I'm not really sure how to handle this. Interested in hearing your advice/feedback on a possible domestic violence situation:

If a tenant in one unit overhears a loud domestic violence situation that involves yelling, crying and worse of all hitting or beating. How should the landlord handle this? Does the landlord have to directly observe the incident or be alerted from the actual victim? Obviously, the tenant that overheard the fight is VERY concerned. Should the landlord ask to be notified immediately if the tenant hears it again? Any advice?

[Jeff G.]

The tenant should have called the police at the time of the incident. All you have is hear-say if you didn't hear it yourself.