Mother Outraged After Police Refuse To Arrest White Man Who Attacked Her 13-Year-Old Son At A Playground

A Pittsburgh woman is demanding answers after a viral video showed a man attacking her 13-year old son at a local playground.

According to WPXI, the man, who has been identified as 46-year-old Thomas D’Andrea told police that the boy was vandalizing a truck nearby and parts of the playground, but the boy and his mother deny that there’s any truth to that story. 

According to Shalayla McGovern, her son was at the park with his sister when D’Andrea began harassing them and accusing her son of vandalism. She said the man told her kids to leave the playground and called them racial slurs. However, she said she believes things escalated because D’Andrea hit her son first and the 13-year-old retaliated.

“My children we’re sitting in the playground in Greenfield where we live, minding their own business when this person ran over to them telling them to leave calling them racial slurs,” she wrote on Facebook. “He lied to the police and said they were vandalizing the playground. He then ran up and began to attack my son. He hit my son FIRST. Punching him and calling him racial slurs.

“He also threatened to hit my daughter who was recording and stole my son’s phone which he then slammed into the ground.  His father and i did not get there until after the  police arrived. Which was nearly 30 minutes later. This p.o.s. need to be in jail. I cannot believe the Pittsburgh police refused to arrest him. Why was this sicko in the park anyway he is a grown adult?  He NEEDS TO BE ARRESTED!!!!”

In the two videos, now posted on her Facebook, D’Andrea is seen sitting on top of the boy while neighbors come to the kid’s defense. D’Andrea said that he had already called 911 and he was restraining the boy until police arrived to the scene. However, the boy’s mother didn’t get to the park until after police arrived.

“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,” McGovern told The Root. “Thankfully my daughter had enough sense to record it.”

As a result of their investigation, D’Andrea was charged with assault, but never spent any time in jail, WPXI reports.

“How could you? How could you? Weren’t you raised better? What if your mother saw this video, how would she feel to see her son attacking a child? I think she would be disgusted,” McGovern said.

D’Andrea has yet to comment, but despite the video, his wife says that he is the victim in the situation.