Police (reluctantly) charge white man for assaulting Black child on playground

A video taken of a man pinning a 13-year-old boy on a slide is only half the story. Police, despite seeing what happened, hesitated to charge the man with a crime

Blue Telusma

Jul 2, 2019

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An irate Pittsburgh man goes was caught on video going on a foul mouthed rant after he attacked a Black child at a local playground — but police were still hesitant to charge him with assault.

According to the account shared on her Facebook page, Shalayla McGovern says on June 25, her 13-year-old son walked over to a park to retrieve his sister’s misplaced phone charger when he was suddenly confronted by a man, who has since been identified as Thomas D’Andrea.

The man allegedly took a single look at the teen, assumed wrongdoing and then accused him and a friend of vandalism before physically striking him.

“So he got upset, ran across the street and ran up to my son and basically said: ‘I’m gonna give you a head start, you better run,’”McGovern later told TheRoot.com. “My son was like ‘What? What are you talking about?’ Then he punched my son in the mouth. So my son hit him back.”

“He got upset because my son hit him back. He thought that because he was an adult he could put his hands on someone and the child wasn’t gonna do anything. The next thing you know, they’re on top of the slide. He pins my son down, threatens my daughter,” she continued, also adding, “Thankfully my daughter had enough sense to record it.”

Authorities initially declined to arrest D’Andrea, and only charged him with assault after after the boy was taken to a local hospital.

“They were trying to say that they weren’t going to arrest him, this wasn’t an arrestable offense, and I went off on them,” said McGovern. “I took my son to the emergency room and I told the doctors and nurses what happened.

“I asked them to call the police,” she continued. “After talking to several people and a social worker, they were able to persuade the police to press assault charges even though they first only charged him with disorderly conduct.”