CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Cecilia Gustafson, and her daughter Ashley Ashworth shared the same birthday — September 26.
They referred to themselves as birthday twins and each year thought of a creative way to celebrate together.
But on September 18, 2016, just a week before their joint birthday and a big trip to Gatlinburg, Gustafson received a phone call from one of Ashley’s friends and found herself living a mother’s worse nightmare.
The voice on the other end told her Ashley had been shot and as details slowly emerged, she later learned Ashley had been shot in the right temple as an innocent bystander at a party in a Cedar Springs Circle home.
In a daze, Gustafson rushed to the Tennova Hospital. Staff sat her in a wheelchair to prevent her from collapsing and wheeled her into the busy trauma room where her daughter was. She watched helplessly as medical personnel worked fervently to save Ashely’s life.
Ashley’s pink skirt lay on the emergency room floor saturated with her blood.
The room was filled with a cacophony of silent chaos. Everything was moving fast in slow motion.
Gustafson looked at her unconscious daughter and somehow knew she would never wake up again. She could not get too close, as medical personnel worked on Ashley.
She held her daughter’s feet and cried.
“All I could do was tell her momma was here,” Gustafson said. “After that, it was pretty much over. … My last vision of my beautiful baby girl is her laying in that bed helpless. It is what I see on a daily basis. I replay this scene in my head every day.”
Ashley was later transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she died.
She was buried two days shy of their birthday. Each year, Gustafson and her family take a trip to Gatlinburg and she honors her daughter by visiting her gravesite on their birthday.
Gustafson shares her heart-wrenching experience to reach the youth and let them know that the decision to pick up a gun and pull the trigger can lead to a lifetime of pain for everyone involved.
“Violence is not the answer,” Gustafson said. “We have to do something. We have to teach our youth and it begins at home…. The whole point of me sharing is not for any attention but to let our younger generation know the hurt and pain that their “in the moment” actions cause!! What you do does not only affect the person you are “targeting,” but it affects thousands of others.”
Demarkus Ely, 21, who pulled the trigger, took a plea agreement in July 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
R.O.C.C.
Ashely Ashworth was close friends with Darius Daesaun Walton.
Darius was hanging out with friends in a Jack Miller Boulevard apartment when a person came into the apartment and began shooting. Darius was shot approximately 10 times and another person who survived was also shot multiple times, his mother Lillian Santiago said.
Darius died at the scene.
He was just 20 years old.
His mother wears a shirt with his name, birth date and death date on it— June 12, 2016– just three months before Ashley was murdered.
Darius’s murder remains under investigation.
Santiago remembers rushing to the hospital and not seeing her son. His body was still at the murder scene unmoved.
The next time she saw her son who she remembers as loving, goofy, funny and always smiling, was in a casket. She remembers his still expression of anger in the casket.
“It’s hard as a parent,” said Santiago said. “I struggle. It’s very hard to lose a child. To know my child was taken and is never coming back it’s just horrible. If I can prevent this from happening to someone else I will. I’d wish this on no one.”
The grieving mothers spend time supporting local anti-gun violence events with other families in the Clarksville area through the Reclaiming our Clarksville Community ROCC, non-profit organization.
Through sharing their experiences, representing their children in the fight against gun violence and supporting the youth, they hope to make a difference in the community.
David Hooks, the founder of R.O.C.C., began the organization in October 2018 to address gun violence awareness in Clarksville, after his family friend, Jalen Johnson Milan,24, was shot and killed. He left behind a family, including three young children. Known as the Bounty Hunter case, the murder trial concluded this summer with not guilty verdicts.
“We can’t bring them back. There’s a lot of sleepless nights,” Hooks said. “We want to remember the victims in a positive way and have activities for the youth to get them off the street.”
R.O.C.C board members have met with city and county leaders, law enforcement and school officials to start the conversation on how to help the youth in Clarksville.
In their first year, they’ve hosted fundraisers to have community events and will be hosting events to honor the memories of those who died by gun violence.
Dunking for Darius, The Ashley Ashworth Walk, Jackets for Jalen and the Princess Ball are a few events in the works to raise money for the organization and provide opportunities to the youth in the community.
“The things that are going on in Clarksville and the lives being lost can be prevented to keep parents from suffering,” Santiago said. “We are losing so many young people, ages 17 to 25 to gun violence. People are being careless for no reason. Everyone isn’t bad and many are just making mistakes.”
One issue R.O.C.C. wants to address is the lack of youth, after-school and life-skill advancement activities in the community.
“There’s nothing to do here in Clarksville,” Hooks said. “We would like to go into the schools and talk to young people. Get the city to open the community centers after schools so they can have something to do. We need mentors and we need programs to teach the youth life skills, so they aren’t in the streets.”
Hooks said additionally they want to incorporate job readiness, education incentives, and other programs to reach children especially the middle-school population.
“We are a new organization, but we are steady,” Hooks said. “So far the kindness of the community has helped us and we are hoping to get more community support. We want to involve the children in the community. We want to reach them and teach them a better way to handle conflict and learn how to cope.”
To learn more about Reclaiming our Clarksville Community visit their Facebook page.
Juvenile and Adult Murder Arrests By the Year
Clarksville City Limits
2018- 15 murders, 8 adult arrests, 3 juvenile arrests
2017-14 murders, 9 adult arrests, 0 juvenile arrests
2016- 12 murders, 11 adult arrests, 0 juvenile arrests
2015- 13 murders, 14 adult arrests, 4 juvenile arrests
2014- 10 murders, 12 adult arrests, 1 juvenile arrest
Totals: 64 murders, 54 adult arrests, 8 juvenile arrest
Statistics provided by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Crime in TN reports, 2014-2018