Sixteen domestic violence-related deaths in Santa Clara County were reported in 2011, according to the Santa Clara County Domestic Violence Council Death Review Committee, which revealed the statistics Tuesday. The 2011 total represents the highest number since 21 deaths were reported in 2003.

The committee typically releases the annual report on Valentine’s Day.

Of the county’s 57 total homicides last year, 11 were domestic violence-related, and six of the 11 involved guns.

The five non-homicide, domestic violence-related deaths were all cases in which a domestic violence suspect committed suicide.

In an article in the San Jose Mercury News, Steven Dick, chair of the Death Review Committee, highlighted the importance of removing firearms from abusers with restraining orders filed against them.

One of the reported gun cases involved Imad Ed Daou shooting his 22-year-old son, Andrew, in his sleep last summer with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and then committing suicide — only three weeks after receiving a restraining order from his ex-wife, Carmen Hamady Daou.

“It is time to take weapons out of abusers’ hands,” Carmen said in an article in the Mountain View Voice.

In light of the increasing involvement of firearms in domestic violence-related killings, Dick announced a new policy in which abusers with protective or restraining orders will be asked to surrender firearms and weapons immediately instead of waiting 24 hours.

Dick said that in 2011, the ending of a relationship — as in Daou’s case — was a common theme in domestic violence-related killings.

According to the committee, the murders and suspected killers in the reported cases crossed all ethnic, socioeconomic and gender lines.

— Ileana Najarro