Playing through the pain
Golden Valley’s A’Jahni Levias, a standout on his basketball team, continues to cope with the loss of his sister
The No. 21 didn’t end up on the back of Golden Valley sophomore A’Jahni Levias’ jersey by chance. Sure, it’s safe to assume a player making the jump from JV to varsity as an underclassman may have just been given a number in correspondence to the jersey that fit him. That certainly wasn’t the case. The number symbolizes a tragedy that no teenager or family should ever have to come to grips with. It also serves as the motivation behind a chubby eighthgrader waking up at 4 a.m. every morning to morph himself into a 6-foot-4 powerhouse on the Grizzlies’ varsity squad on his way to earning a college scholarship.
At 21 years old, Levias’ sister, A’Tierra Westbrook, was shot and killed while on her way to work as an admissions representative at Kaiser Permanente Richmond Medical Center in the Bay Area on August 3, 2015.
“When I have that number on my back, I know I need to honor her and work hard just like she did,” A’Jahni said.
Westbrook and A’Jahni’s mother, Senika Shields-Levias, elected to move the family to Santa Clarita just three months after the shooting.
“I felt like to think clearly, I needed to remove myself from the situation,” Senika said. “I realized you can’t heal in an environment that caused you so much sickness.”
Joining them were Senika’s youngest sister, Tiffany Shields, and their mother Paula Shields. The middle of the three daughters, Regina Shields-Hailey, already lived in the area.
The tight-knit family acknowledges time will never really heal all the wounds from this tragedy.
But their hopeful for their new life in a new town.
And much of that hope stems from watching A’Jahni’s transformation on the hardwood and what’s to come of his future.
August 3, 2015
Senika was a nurse at the same hospital in Richmond that Westbrook worked at, located in the East Bay just outside of Oakland.
Senika wasn’t at work that morning because she didn’t renew her tuberculosis test before the family embarked on a cruise to Mexico a week prior, and had to cancel the shift to take care of the clearance.
While on her way to the hospital to take care of the test, her husband and A’Jahni’s father, Amonte Levias, got a call from a friend saying Westbrook’s home in Vallejo was roped off.
After placing a call to the hospital at 11 a.m. and finding out that Westbrook had not shown up for her scheduled 8 a.m. shift, Senika began to worry.
“For her to be that late to her shift, I knew it was bad,” Senika said.
With A’Jahni and Tiffany’s children, Aubuany and Auveen in the back seat, Senika sped back toward Vallejo to find the hose roped off and Westbrook’s car crashed into a pole.
“Our worst nightmare had come true,” Senika said.
Senika acknowledged the East Bay’s reputation for a high crime rate, but Westbrook was a cheerleader and honor student at Vallejo High School – a superb role model for A’Jahni and the rest of the family.
It didn’t take long after the unthinkable tragedy for Senika to spring into action. With the help of her sisters and mother, she started the “Justice For A’Ti” foundation to find the killers.
“It’s weird, when something like this happens to you, you want to jump into action almost immediately,” Senika said. “And you don’t even think about yourself or your own well-being. You just want to make sure your child isn’t forgotten and that you get