'It's been too long': Family of slain Wilkinsburg mother pleads for answers

Latoya Gathers said her 7-year-old granddaughter sometimes cries and calls out for her mother during the night.

The girl was at home in Wilkinsburg last year when two men came in, demanded money and then shot her mother, Zaviawna Gathers.

Gathers, 26, was pronounced dead in a second-floor bedroom at the Princeton Boulevard home.

“That was my baby girl,” Latoya Gathers said of Zaviawna Gathers.

Family members gathered Friday morning at Allegheny County Police headquarters to seek information on the investigation into the July 19 homicide.

“It’s been too long for my daughter to be in a grave and I don’t know … who (killed her) or why,” Latoya Gathers said. “She was only 26 years old. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve this at all.”

Family members described Zaviawna Gathers as a go-getter. Often called Zavi, Zay Bay or Awna, she graduated from McKeesport High School and later was certified as a nurses’ aide. Her family wrote in her obituary that she was pursuing a nursing degree and working at the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.

“She loved her baby girl,” her mother said. “She did anything for her.”

Latoya Gathers then spoke directly to the person or people who killed her daughter.

“I don’t know how you can sleep at night knowing what you did in front of her daughter,” she said.

Zaviawna Gathers’ uncle, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, pleaded for someone in the community to come forward.

“I always say that it’s us as a community. If we’re really going to make our community safer, it’s about how we stand up and talk about what’s going on,” he said. “You’re beginning to see it happen more and more: the community standing up and saying, ‘Hey, listen, enough is enough.’”

Witnesses at the time reported seeing an older green Ford Mustang and white Toyota SUV near the Princeton Boulevard home around the time of the shooting. Police said they later found the cars and learned that they had been loaned to a group of men “known to frequent the Penn Hills and Homewood areas.”

“If you know something about what happened to my niece, tell it,” Gainey said. “If you know what happened to somebody else in our neighborhood that was murdered, tell it. This is what we need as a community. That’s how we help each other.”

Anyone with information can contact the county police through the tip line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS (1-833-255-8477) or via the department’s social media sites. Callers can remain anonymous.