Family Pleads For Answers In Death Of Wilkinsburg Mother Shot In Front Of Child
By: Bryant Reed and Royce Jones/KDKA-TV News
WILKINSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) - A family is pleading for the community's help eight months after a woman was brutally killed in front of her child in Wilkinsburg.
On Friday, Zaviawna Gathers' family — including her uncle, Mayor Ed Gainey — made a call to the public to help them find her killer.
"That person killed my baby in front of her 7-year-old daughter, my granddaughter, brutally," said Latoya Gathers, Zaviawna's mother.
In July of last year, police found Gathers dead in her second-floor bedroom on Princeton Boulevard. Police said Gathers' daughter was inside the home at the time, but the girl wasn't harmed.
Gathers' grandmother, mom and uncle said there has been no success in finding her killer and they're asking the public to speak up.
"This is my appeal in this case for my niece and for everybody that has lost someone and have been murdered. If you know something, come forward," Gainey said.
Gainey used the platform to not only ask for help in his niece's death but others across the city.
"I'm here just to talk about my niece, but let me say this: to anybody out there who has lost a loved one and you know that you know something that is going on, something that will help the case, something that you've said to the one that's passed that you loved them, tell somebody."
WATCH: KDKA's Royce Jones reports
For the most part, the family and Allegheny County homicide investigators have little information to go on except for the details that Gather's daughter was able to provide. She told detectives she saw two Black males enter the home, ask for money and shoot her mother.
Witnesses told police they saw an older green Ford Mustang and a white Toyota SUV at the home when the shooting happened around 7 a.m. Those vehicles were recovered by detectives, who later learned they were loaned to a group of males known to frequent Penn Hills and Homewood.
Gathers' mother said she doesn't know why somebody would even think about doing this and made a plea to her daughter's killer.
"I don't even know how you can sleep at night knowing what you did. You should really turn yourself in," she said.
If you know anything, call Allegheny County police.
"If anybody knows anything about what happened to her, then you should say something. It's been too long for my daughter to be in the grave and I don't know why," her mother said.
