Family offers new reward in unsolved Vallejo murder

VALLEJO, Calif. (KTVU) -- A Vallejo family grieving over the murder of a 21-year-old woman last month is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to her killer.

"This criminal needs to be off the street, and somebody had to have seen something, " Shaniqua Levias told KTVU at her home minutes from the Benicia Street duplex where daughter A'Tierra Westbrook lived and died. 

Her daughter was shot to death at about 7 am on Monday August 3, as she prepared to drive to her job at Kaiser Hospital in Richmond.

Her mother heard sirens that morning, but didn't make the connection until hours later when she found out A'Tierra had never made it to work.

"That was when my heart just dropped, because I realized she hadn't returned my texts all morning. And we talked all the time," said Levias.

After five weeks with no arrest, the family hopes the reward brings new leads to the stalled case.

"I still can't rest because the person who stole my baby's life is still running around here free," Levias said sadly. "I hope they remember her face as they shot her and killed her. I hope it burns a hole in them and they can't sleep at night."

Westbrook was shot several times in the driver's seat of her Toyota Camry. Her car crashed into a pole about 50 feet from her door. She died at the scene.

"She was cheer captain her twelfth grade year," reminisced Levias, describing how Westbrook graduated from Vallejo High School in 2012. She said A'Tierra was always a good student and level-headed.

"We're willing to do whatever it takes to find who did this, because only then can we begin the process of learning to live without her," ," Westbrook's aunt Tiffany Shields told KTVU. "And that's the very hard part, learning to live without her."

Loved ones say A'Tierra had everything going for her.

"She was happy, outgoing, a leader, life of the party," shared her mom. "She was enjoying her life, very motivated."

A'Tierra's possessions, her purse, money and cell phone, were not taken.

"This happening is like our hearts being ripped out and thrown in the street and ran over multiple times," declared Shields.

Detectives are looking anyone or anything A'Tierra might have been involved with. But her mom and aunt say she avoided trouble and did not have a boyfriend or relationship issues.

"My daughter was not someone to be drawn into anything bad, she was a hard worker, a family girl," insisted Levias." And she did not deserve to die like that."

Levias, a nurse, takes some comfort knowing that neighbors, even strangers, ran to A'Tierra and she did not die alone.

"There were people there, praying for her, when she took her last breath, so I'm comforted in knowing that," said Levias.

There is a Facebook page -- Justice for A'Ti -- publicizing the murder and the new reward.