An acclaimed jazz musician said his 14-year-old son was approached and falsely accused of stealing a woman’s iPhone at a boutique hotel in New York City over the weekend. The incident provoked apologies from the hotel and calls from the family’s lawyer to file charges against the woman.
Keyon Harrold, a well-known trumpeter who has performed with characters such as Beyoncé, claimed that he and his teenage son, who are black, were assaulted by the woman who claimed the boy was taking her smartphone. She shared a video on social media showing part of her meeting with her in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan on Saturday.
The woman told the teen to hand over the phone, but Harrold’s son replied, “This is my phone.” Behind a hotel manager man, the woman continued to demand the device.
“Are you kidding me? Do you think there’s only one iPhone made in the world?” Harrold hears him ask.
The manager approached the boy and asked to see the phone, mentioning that he was the hotel manager.
“I don’t care, this is my son,” Harrold told him, adding that the two were hotel guests who had just come down the elevator.
After the manager said she was just trying to help, Harrold replied, “But don’t help, what you’re feeling is disrespectful … My son has nothing to do with her.”
“No, he’s not leaving,” the woman said. “Show me the test”.
The father and son walk away, but she follows them and appears throwing herself at old Harold.
“No, please get my phone back,” he said. “I can’t not have my phone!”
“Take your hands off,” Harrold said as the video ends.
Harrold wrote in the social media post that an Uber driver returned the phone to him after the “traumatic” incident and said he did not apologize to either him or his son. He also accused the woman of scratching him and alleged that he “attacked and grabbed” her son.
In an Instagram post, Arlo Hotels apologized for the “recent baseless indictment, prejudice and assault on an innocent guest of the Arlo Hotel.”
“No Arlo guest, nor any person, should be subject to this kind of behavior,” the chain said. “We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience and we have contacted them directly to express our sincere condolences and offer help to deal with the traumatic event.”
The hotel chain said the manager called police regarding the woman’s behavior and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence. The NYPD told CBS News on Monday that they had received a complaint related to the incident, but that they did not comment further when asked about an investigation.
Katty Rodriguez, the teen’s mother, thanked fans on social media for her support and called for the woman in the incident to be identified. He also explained why the family continued with the complaints.
“The only reason we decided to make it public and post on social media was because the hotel that had a security guard let this lady go while she waited for the police to respond after assaulting my son several times. sometimes, which is not seen in this video because the father of my children dropped the phone to protect our son! ”she wrote.
In a statement on behalf of the family, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump instat the Manhattan District Attorney for bringing assaults and battery charges on the woman he accused and allegedly attacked the teen. He also called for a civil rights investigation at the Arlo Hotel for “his implicit bias in Keyon’s treatment.”
This incident echoes a similar encounter earlier this year when Christian Cooper, a black man, filmed Amy Cooper, a white woman, calling police in Central Park and falsely telling them he was threatening her. She was accused of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, a foul.