Earlier this week, 22-year-old Tiarah Poyau was shot in the face when she told a young man "no" after he started grinding on her. Tiarah had been walking with her friends throughout the parade at the J'Ouvert Festival in New York that morning on Monday, September 5th when she was approached by a 20-year-old man named Reginald Moise. Moise began grinding on her, which in result, made Poyau uncomfortable and naturally told him "get off me". Immediately after, Poyau and her friends turned and started walking away from Moise. But seconds later, Poyau's friends heard a gun shot and turned around and saw their friend collapse to the ground.
When police arrived at the scene, Tiarah's friends said that they did not see the shooter. But fortunately, Reginald was found later by the police and was identified as the person responsible for Tiarah's death. When police found Moise, he was under the influence and was found with a bloodied Caribbean flag wrapped around his hand when he was pulled over. Following the incident of the shooting, Moise fled to his girlfriend's home and asked to hide the gun at her house. While there, he shot two rounds into his mirror - one of them entering the neighbor's house who contacted the police.
What's terrifying is the extremes that Moise went to after she simply told him "no" to his inappropriate actions. He didn't walk away, he didn't yell at her or call her hideous names - he shot her. And all she said was "get off me". If we lived in a better world, there wouldn't be any murdering involved. Moise was grinding on her without her consent, and when no means no, then it's final and he might as well walk away. But he shot her.
These are the kind of important situations that seriously need to be called attention to, as they are getting completely out of hand. Tiarah's death isn't the only incredibly outrageous situation that has occurred, but other instances like it have happened at a point as well. Lakeeya Walker was beaten by a man in March for not saying "Thank you" after he held the door open for her, and a woman named Mary Spears of Detroit, Michigan was killed by a man after saying "no" to his advances. So tell me what is going to happen next? What is going to happen when a woman is in a hurry and forgets to say "thank you" to someone who is opening the door for her? Will her life suddenly end because she didn't utter those two words just because she had something on her mind as simple picking her children up from school? Lives should not be ending because women are allowed to say no, or because they're expected to act a certain way towards a man. It's messed up that if she doesn't act a certain way, that there are consequences. Our society has gone up another level of fear, and because of these events happened so frequently, I won't be surprised if women become more cautious of their surroundings and how they speak to men around them.
We can only hope that after learning more about cases such as Tiarah's, we will take action and truly understand the severity of it.
(Right: Reginald Moise, Left: Tiarah Poyau)
