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 over the weekend. The incident prompted apologies from the hotel and calls from the family’s lawyer to bring charges against the woman.
Keyon Harrold, a well-known trumpeter who sang with Beyoncé, claimed that he and his teenage son, both black, were assaulted by the woman who claimed that the child took her smartphone. He shared a video on social media showing part of their meeting with her in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan on Saturday.
The woman told the teenager to hand over the phone, but Harrold’s son replied, “This is my phone.” Standing behind a hotel manager, the woman continued to ask for the device.
“Are you kidding me? Do you feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?” Harrold is heard asking her.
The manager approached the boy and asked to see the phone, mentioning that he is a manager at the hotel.
“I don’t care, this is my son,” Harrold told him, adding that the two were hotel guests who had just got off the elevator.
After the manager said he was just trying to help, Harrold replied, “But don’t help, what you are is disrespectful … My son has nothing to do with her.”
“No, don’t leave,” she said. – Show me the proof.
The father and son walk away, but she follows them and appears to throw herself at the older Harold.
“No, please take my phone back,” she said. “I can’t help but have my phone!”
“Get your hands down,” Harrold said as the video ended.
Harrold wrote in the social media post that an Uber driver returned his phone after the “traumatic” incident and said that he did not apologize to him or his son. He also accused the woman of scratching him and claiming that he “attacked and grabbed” his son.
In an Instagram post, Arlo Hotels apologized for “the recent baseless indictment, prejudice, assault on an innocent guest of the Arlo Hotel.”
“No Arlo guest – or anyone – should be subjected to this type of behavior,” the chain said. “We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience and contacted them directly to express our sincere regret and help in dealing with the traumatic event.”
The hotel chain said the manager called police about the woman’s behavior, and hotel security intervened to prevent further violence. The NYPD told CBS News on Monday that it had received a complaint about the incident, but did not comment when asked about an investigation.
Katty Rodriguez, the teenager’s mother, later thanked the followers on social networks for their support and asked for the identification of the woman in the incident. She also explained why the family continued with the allegations.
“The only reason we decided to go out in public and post on social media was because the hotel that had a security guard let this young lady leave while she waited for the police response after assaulting her son. my several times, which is not seen on this video, because the father of my sons dropped the phone to protect our son! ” she wrote.
In a statement on behalf of the family, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump incentive the Manhattan prosecutor to bring assaults and battery charges on the woman who accused her and allegedly attacked the teenager. He also called for a civil rights investigation into the Arlo Hotel for “its implicit bias in treating Keyon.”
This incident reflects 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 misdemeanor.