News Writing - Event Interview Account

Antoinette Manigoult has always been a city girl, but after a near death experience, Pittsburgh is one city that she refuses to go back to.

It was Fourth of July weekend 2011. Antoinette, along with friends, Teyonta DeJesus and Jasmine Wesley went on a road trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate. It would be her first and final visit. After a wonderful weekend of shopping at the strip district and a nice scenic drive by the river, she and her friends decided to conclude their trip and stop by a dinner cookout at Kennard Playground in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. They stayed from 5pm to 8pm. It would be the most traumatic and devastating 3 hours of the girls’ lives.

Everything was going smoothly at the central city park until local residents in a nearby venue broke out into an argument. Within minutes a “pop” was heard, followed by another and another.

Gunshots began flying. Manigoult looked around her to see friends and other park-goers running for cover. On instinct, she ducked behind a small black car in hopes of hiding in the safety of the its darken shadows.

“It was terrifying,” said Manigoult, “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know who or where even the shots came from. But I just started running. I knew I had to hide somewhere.”

Beside her was another woman hovering over her baby daughter in hopes of protecting her from danger.

“She wasn’t even two years old,” said Manigoult.

In the distance, Manigoult saw her friends running towards the woods behind the park’s basketball courts. She and her friends had been separated in the chaos.

“At first, I froze then when I realized what was going on,” said Teyonta DeJesus, a sophomore at North Carolina A&T, “I ran as far as I could because there wasn’t really anything to hide behind. I was scared that I was going to get shot. I panicked.”

After realizing that Antoinette was not with the rest of their group of friends in the wooden shelter, DeJesus grew concerned. “I knew that I had to somehow find a way to get to the woods as well,” said Manigoult, “It was the only safe place out of the shooters’ range.”

Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for the run of her life. She ran as fast as her feet could possibly carry her across the blue concrete pavement of the basketball courts and into safety, making sure to duck low to protect herself any additional shots that were being fired.

When she finally reunited with her friends in the wooden refuge, she said, “It felt as if I had been running for hours.”

It took 15 minutes for the police to arrive at the scene. When they did, they concluded no one had been injured. “It’s so ironic,” said Manigoult, “The entire picnic was supposed to be in honor of a 15 year old boy who got shot a while ago in Homewood. He went to outside to play, just like us, and was shot in the back. They never found out who shot him. He ended up dying.”

“And it’s even more ironic that the police took so long to get here,” adds Wesley. “The station was literally just around the corner. What could they possibly doing? It’s ridiculous. I know that city has a lot of crime, but this just furthers the bad reputation.”

The police station Wesley referred to is the Pittsburgh Police Station located at 2000 Centre Avenue, a mere 2 minute drive away from Kennard Playground.

“When they came, finally, they cleared the scene and stopped the fighting,” said Manigoult, “Then they sent us all home.”

Since the incident, Antoinette has vowed never to go back Pittsburgh and at times, she still finds herself flinching at, and paranoid of, loud sounds.

“I think it kind of gave Antoinette a negative outlook on Pittsburgh because she said she doesn’t want to come back,” said DeJesus, who was disappointed that her friend’s first trip ended up a near-death experience, “The city isn’t that dangerous. You just have to know the right places to be.”

But Manigoult believes differently. Neiighborhood Scout, an online database that provides enterprise-grade data for every neighborhood and city in the United States, states that the city of Pittsburgh has a crime index ranked as a 10/100, meaning that the city is only safer than 10% of the cities in America in terms of shootings and robberies.

But DeJesus still maintains an optimistic view about the city. “It’s fairly safe depending on where you are and the crowd of people you are around,” said DeJesus. “I actually have been back to [Kenard Playground] and everything was fine. The Hill District and Homewood are the worst during the summer though.”

The city’s “killing season,” when crimes and murders increase, occurs during the summer season.

As traumatic as it was, the event served as a life lesson for both Manigoult and DeJesus. “It made me think twice about going to certain events,” said DeJesus.

The shooting still remains a touchy subject for the friends.

“We don’t talk about it, nor do I discuss it with other,” said DeJesus. Manigoult, though, did confide in a third person about the event. “My mom knows. She does. She was not happy about it, obviously,” said Manigoult.

“It concerns me that there was no report on the incident and that really says something about the city,” said Antoinette’s mother, Naiobe Sherrock (Special Education Teacher), “if shootings like this are so common that they aren’t even reported on anymore, then something needs to be done. Just because someone wasn’t injured doesn’t mean that it wasn’t dangerous. The fact that authorities didn’t think it was serious enough and took their time getting there raises even more concern for me. I wouldn’t want my children or students to grown up in an environment like that.”

As for Manigoult, she is simply thankful to be alive.

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