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Nooses Left At O'Hara Township Work Site

POSTED: 11:44 am EDT October 4, 2007
UPDATED: 1:00 pm EDT October 4, 2007

A third possible incident of racial workplace intimidation in the Pittsburgh area this week was reported on Thursday morning.

Errol Madyun told WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Ari Hait that he found a noose on Wednesday at the construction site where he's working in O'Hara Township.

Madyun said the site had been great to work on, without even a hint of trouble, until this incident.

"It makes my blood boil," Madyun said. "Here it is, 2007, and you have so-called -- I wouldn't even call them human beings. Obviously, we have someone on our project that is a slimeball."

Madyun said there was also a noose waiting for another African-American man on the job site, and they both notified the job superintendent.

"Soon as you told him, he should've did something right away," Madyun said.

But Madyun said he and the other man who found a noose did not get the reaction they expected from the superintendent.

"He said it was a joke," Madyun said. "I don't see the humor in this. I think it is very, very serious."

Zambrano Corporation is the primary contractor on the site. They did not answer knocks on the door or return phone calls from Channel 4 Action News on Thursday morning.

Later Thursday morning, Zambrano's vice president of operations, Keith Smith, released this statement:

"Zambrano Corporation deplores these actions and is investigating this offensive conduct. We're taking immediate measures to stop any further incidents of this nature."

Madyun said he filed a report with O'Hara Township police and will keep the noose as evidence until he gets some answers.

On Wednesday, a woman who works at the Verizon facility in Warrendale told Channel 4 Action News that she received an inter-office envelope at her desk with a black doll inside, and the doll had the N-word and a threat written on it.

On Monday, a black baby doll with a racial epithet written on it was found hanging in a hallway at the Port Authority's work garage in East Liberty.

No arrests have been made in any of the three incidents.


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