18-year-old attacked by stranger in Downtown Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A young woman is speaking out after she said she was attacked by a stranger in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The 18-year-old was not only injured during the attack but she's traumatized because of it. She wanted to share her story as concerns about safety on Smithfield Street grow.
Sofia Mancing is back at home in Butler County for the summer. She is a sophomore at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles but working an internship at Flying Scooter Productions in Downtown Pittsburgh between school years.
Mancing said she was leaving for the day around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, heading to a bus stop on Smithfield Street towards Sixth Avenue. That's when she says a woman randomly hit her in the back of the head with a shoe. Mancing said she kept walking.
"She followed me down the street to Strawberry Way. And she grabbed me by the hair, pulled me into the street and shoved me onto the ground and then started punching and kicking me in the face, in the back of the head, all along my shoulders and back. And at one point, she dragged me further into the street," Mancing said.
Mancing went to the hospital. She has a concussion and a broken nose.
The assault happened just two blocks from Flying Scooter Productions. She started there a week ago.
"There were a lot of people around that did nothing," Mancing said. "That's the one thing that I'm actually mad about, is that nobody came to help me. It felt awful not being able to defend myself, and I guess just why me out of everybody on the street that day."
According to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Shurontaya Festa is the person who attacked Mancing. Festa was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.
The criminal complaint said the assault was captured on a city camera, and police said the video shows it was clear that Festa intended to cause severe injuries to Mancing.
Mancing told KDKA-TV that she felt helpless.
"I felt utterly alone in that moment and being on my own, being a young woman, that's going to stay with me for awhile," she said.
The co-owners of Flying Scooter Productions sent KDKA-TV a statement. They said they opened the company's doors in Downtown Pittsburgh seven years ago, and they've seen a steady increase in crime, drug dealing and homelessness in that area.
The statement also said in part, "We have had enough of the egregious oversight and performative rhetoric. We are asking the elected officials to do what is needed to make Pittsburgh safe — because regardless of what they are telling you – it is far from it."
"I just want someone to make any effort that can really be seen. Making promises to make change and not being able to see it, that's not helpful," Mancing said.
While Mancing's hesitant to come back Downtown, she will go back to work. But she won't take the bus anymore and hopes to carpool with a co-worker from now on.
"I hope that people are more aware of the dangers of being Downtown. I was completely naive to the situation, and I think I could have been more prepared," Mancing said.
"I was nervous earlier in the day because walking down Smithfield, it was just lined with people passed out or kind of stumbling around," she added.
KDKA-TV reached out to the mayor's office for comment. We received a statement from Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt, who said isolated incidents like this can happen anywhere. He encourages people to say something if they see something.
