Protest Easy Guns

Charlotte-32

Click here for photo gallery (Photos by Donna Bise)

CHARLOTTE, NC (NBC) - Columbia native Joanne Hafter lied down on the streets of uptown Charlotte Monday afternoon. She was a part of a group of 32, representing the average number of people killed by gun violence everyday in our country. Joanne's daughter Lizzie was brutally murdered almost a year ago. She hasn't told her story publicly until now.

"My daughter Lizzie Hafter was murdered September 29th, 2006," she says. "I don't want anyone to ever forget her."

In the heart of downtown Charlotte, Hafter is preparing to bear her soul. It's been almost a year since her daughter Lizzie, an Irmo grad, was murdered at the hands of a serial killer. She says it's time to break her silence - after holding the emotion in all this time.

Last September police say William Ashby went on a two-week killing spree. It started in Georgia and included stops in Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina, where authorities say he killed a Darlington County man.

Ashby's last victim would be Joanne's daughter in Virginia. Lizzie was a student at UVA. "He could have been stopped so many times, so many days before so many people could have been alive right now."

That's why JoAnne is in Charlotte - asked to tell her story during a protest by a group who believes there are loopholes in Carolina gun laws.

Ashby used a stolen gun in his rampage. Hafter says, "We need a law for gun owners to report stolen weapons immediately to police."

The group is also asking that laws preventing people with severe mental illness from owning guns be enforced. Ashby's sanity was questioned after he was finally caught driving Lizzie's car in Florida. Hafter says, "It was because of her he was caught."

Ashby did not go quietly. He died in a shootout with police, but not before killing Lizzie Hafter's dreams.

"That was her dream. She wanted to perform on Broadway," says her mother. Now her mother's out to prove the show must go on. "Lizzie was my daughter. And very best friend. I don't want anyone else to lose their Lizzie."

She's prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen.

Reported by Kara Gormley