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“A Noise Feud That Turned Deadly”

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In my last apartment, my downstairs neighbor had a habit that seemed designed to ruin my life. From 1 to 3 a.m., directly below my bed, he’d play a shaky, bass-heavy … sound. In the clutches of insanity, I stared at my half-asleep boyfriend, droning on: We have to move, you have to go down there, I’m going to lose it, etc. I suspect most New Yorkers have experienced some version of this situation. So when Curbed’s “Noise Week” was in its planning stages and Adriane Quinlan found the story of Tyquan Pleasant, who’d been stabbed to death by his neighbor, Shaun Pyles — according to the tabloids, over a noise dispute —  it seemed like a no-brainer to investigate exactly what happened. Had one of these everyday New York City noise arguments escalated and escalated to a tragic result? Adriane is a special reporter and managed to talk to essentially everyone involved: neighbors, the victim’s fiancée, the landlord, and the alleged murderer, who is awaiting trial at Rikers. And it turned out the story was much more complicated than just the noise — it’s about a city unable to help its most vulnerable residents.

—Katy Schneider, features editor, New York

The Noise Next Door Tyquan Pleasant knocked on his neighbor’s door to ask her to stop the ear-shattering music and banging. Shaun Pyles heard a threat.

Illustration: Michele Febbraio
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