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WAVENEY ANN MOOREA crowd of kids who see things in black and white put innocents - contributors to their own community - in danger.
ST. PETERSBURG - The teen girl heaved a concrete block at the stopped Chevy Suburban. Inside, Dr. Elinor Miranda felt the window shatter. She shuddered and wondered what was happening in her city.
"We were innocent bystanders," said Dr. Miranda, a 49-year-old pediatrician who was in the SUV with her husband, Dr. Frank Marsalisi, and members of her family when a mob attacked their vehicle at the intersection of 18th Avenue S and 34th Street during the May 12 unrest.
Dr. Miranda, who blames a tiny minority for the trouble, is no stranger to neighborhoods south of Central. She has an office south of Midtown, and colleagues say she has routinely donated formula and diapers to needy families and has seen indigent patients without charge.
So it was particularly jarring when young people - who had no idea that both doctors help the neediest - attacked them for what they seemed to represent.
The couple, three of their children and a friend had just left Adriano's Italian Restaurant at 3405 34th St. N and were heading to their Maximo neighborhood around 10 p.m. when trouble struck, Dr. Miranda said.
"We're stopped at the red light and I see all these people coming west on 18th Avenue S and I said to my husband that the baseball game has just let out," she recalled.
"I said, "I hope the light turns or else we're going to be stopped here for a while.' "
The approaching crowd, she observed, was made up of mostly boys and girls, teenagers about 14 to 18, and a sprinkling of adults. They were closing in on a car traveling north on 34th.
"All of a sudden they reach that car and start pelting that car with rocks. He had his sunroof open and they were trying to pull him out of the sun roof. I said, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. They're going to kill him.' At the same time, kids start running across the street toward us. I would say close to 100 kids. It was mayhem. It was havoc," the Cuban-born doctor said.
"When they started pelting that guy's car, I said, "Frank, this must be a riot.' "
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a girl, 16 or 17 years old, approaching their vehicle with a concrete block in her hand.
"She said, "Yes, we're black and get out of our neighborhood,' " and threw the block at the front passenger seat, Dr. Miranda recalled.
"After she hit the car, she said, "We got the white b--'s car.' . . . It shattered the window and I got cuts and scrapes on my back from the piece that hit my back."
The crowd broke the windshield and the windows in the back and sides of the SUV. Marsalisi, 49, director of gynecology at Bayfront Medical Hospital, was cut on his forehead.
The children, Frank, 20, a criminology major at the University of Florida; Christina, 16, who attends Lakewood High School; and Priscilla, 14, in the medical magnet program at Boca Ciega High School; and Christina's friend, Ravi Rai, 17, also a student at Lakewood, were fortunate. Frank, who had just arrived home for the summer, got a small cut on his leg and a few on the soles of his feet, his mother said.
"They all ducked. Of course, they were hysterical," she said.
"Really, the grace of God was with us. . . . Everything I know happened within seconds. Of course, when you're in it, it seems like an eternity."
Not waiting for a green light, her husband sped around the car in front of them and drove through the red light. The crowd stepped back but continued to throw objects at the vehicle.
Dr. Miranda knows the neighborhoods well. One of her offices is at 62nd Avenue and 12th Street S, between those of state Rep. Frank Peterman and U.S. Rep. Jim Davis. She and her family live in the neighborhood behind Maxi Mall, at Maximo Plaza, 4301 34th St. S, where there was looting later that night.
"I said to my husband, "You're not even safe in your own back yard.' This is misdirected violence at someone who is innocent, the same thing they are complaining about. It doesn't make sense.
"I have to say that my patients have been so gracious. A lot of families came by the office. I have received numerous cards and I have had families call me and apologize for other people's behavior," she said.
"This is a very, very small minority," she said of her attackers, "because I know the bulk of the Afro-American community does not act that way. They've been very warm and embracing."
Rosalyn Connelly, who is black, said she was appalled to hear what had happened to the woman she has known for 16 years.
"I was just real hurt," she said.
The pediatrician is a mentor to her daughter Erin, 24, now in medical school at Florida State University.
"She would let her come into her office, like in the seventh and eighth grade, and let her volunteer. And when she got into high school, she continued to let her do that," Mrs. Connelly said.
A supervisor for the Department of Children and Families, Mrs. Connelly added that Dr. Miranda never hesitated when asked to donate infant supplies to needy families or to see poor patients.
"She is always giving," she said.
Despite last week's scare, Dr. Miranda said she has no plans to move her office or leave the neighborhood she has called home for 20 years.
As much as possible, though, she and her family will avoid 34th Street S.
"We're going to hop on the highway," she said, referring to Interstate 275.