Advocates say more support is needed for gun violence victims, survivors

A violent rampage through Charlotte this week has left behind scars for the family of the man who died, and for the survivors as well. But advocates say too often, there’s not enough support for people in their situation.

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On Saturday, they hope to change that. Advocates plan to declare there is no healing in the justice system, and they want to take that message from the library on Beatties Ford Road in west Charlotte to the nation’s capital.

Reporter Ken Lemon talked to two of the speakers for Saturday’s event. They said while there are systems in place, they are woefully underfunded. And they know firsthand how a lack of support hurts the victim over and over.

‘You feel alone’

It’s been nearly two decades since one of the worst days of Shonda Lifhred’s life.

“I was shot three times in my chest, once in my stomach, once in my leg and twice in my back,” she told Lemon.

The west Charlotte resident was living in Florida when her son, who was 6 at the time, saw his mother shot by an abusive partner. She survived, but she said it put her in a dark place.

“It leaves you scared, afraid,” she said. “You feel alone.”

Her scars healed well before her spirit did. The shooting happened 24 years ago.

“I’m still in the healing process,” she said.

Lifhred and the national director for the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice want Trauma Recovery Centers in Charlotte and all other cities. They advocate for millions in government investments toward local groups working to help survivors.

Director Aswad Thomas said that he has learned the consequences of failing to act. He said he was shot in the back during a robbery.

Thomas told Lemon as a doctor pulled the bullets out of his back, he told him about a 14-year-old shooting victim he helped in that same hospital four years earlier.

“I said, ‘can you stop the surgery, ‘cause you had just described the teenager that had shot me,’” Aswad said. “I strongly feel like his unaddressed trauma played a strong role in my shooting. I knew that’s how the cycle of violence continues.”

Lifhred is trying help other gun violence victims with her organization, but she has no budget and no staff.

The group gathering Saturday said helping grassroots group like hers can end violence. That’s the message they will share during a march on Washington in September.

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