Prosecutors in New York City are investigating an incident in which a jazz musician said his 14-year-old son was attacked by a woman who falsely accused him of taking her iPhone.
Trumpeter Keyon Harrold posted a video taken with his phone that shows the woman making claims against his son on Saturday at the Arlo SoHo boutique hotel.
Harrold and his son are Black and were guests at the hotel in lower Manhattan. The woman in the video appears to be White.
His video of the encounter has been widely shared on social media, prompting an outcry about what many felt was yet another incident of racial profiling against Black men. The hotel apologized and called the woman’s behavior a “baseless accusation, prejudice and assault against an innocent guest.”
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said his office “is thoroughly investigating” the incident, and the New York Police Department told CNN that a complaint for harassment at the Arlo Soho hotel has been filed.
After viewing surveillance video of the incident, investigators are considering charging the woman with assault and possibly grand larceny or attempted robbery, said Rodney Harrison, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, on Tuesday.
The woman disputes the accusations against her
The woman has not come forward, but CNN talked to her by phone Tuesday and she disputed Harrold’s account of what happened.
While the 22-year-old woman claimed she was assaulted during the altercation, CNN hasn’t been able to corroborate her account with investigators or with the hotel where the incident took place.
In a 20-minute phone interview, she said the incident unfolded after she first demanded to see the hotel’s surveillance video to try and pinpoint who may have taken her phone. She says she then asked someone else in the hotel lobby to “empty their pocket,” before ultimately confronting Keyon Harrold Jr., who she maintained had her phone in his pocket.
“That’s when everything got a little bit more serious,” the woman said referring to the interaction.
Throughout the phone call, the woman’s account of the incident was rambling at times. She provided additional information of events preceding and unrelated to the incident that CNN has been unable to confirm.
When asked if she’s concerned about possibly facing charges and overall how she is portrayed in the video, she said, “Of course I worry. That’s not who I am. I actually… try very hard to make sure that I am always doing the right thing.”
The woman told CNN that she is willing to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, but she hasn’t received a call from the NYPD yet nor has she reached out herself. She also said she’d be willing to talk to the Harrolds.
After she agreed to provide evidence that could help confirm her claim that she was assaulted, she stopped responding to CNN’s phone calls and text messages.
CNN is not naming her at this time because she said she has concerns for her safety unrelated to this incident.
CNN also requested a police report from the NYPD, but it declined to provide one, saying it typically does not in such situations.
Many who have seen Harrold’s video, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have alleged racism. But there are no plans “at this time” to charge the woman with a bias crime, Harrison said.
“The investigation is still preliminary, a lot of work still needs to be done,” he said. “The complainants are cooperating and I’m confident that the investigators from the first precinct will make an arrest on this case sooner than later.”
Harrold says the encounter happened on the way to breakfast
Harrold said in an Instagram post that he and his son had left their hotel room to get breakfast when they encountered the woman. It’s not clear what occurred before he started filming, but in the video, the woman can be heard telling Harrold’s son, Keyon Harrold Jr., to show her his phone.
The teen tells her “this is my phone” and his father tells him he doesn’t have to explain anything to the woman. The woman comes closer to them, demanding the case be taken off the phone.
She then taps a male hotel employee on the shoulder and asks him to bring the phone to her. “Literally get it back for me, please,” she says.
Jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold, seen here at a conference in 2016.
The elder Harrold responds, “Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?” A man who identifies himself as the hotel manager asks to see the phone but the teen’s father refuses. “I’m trying to settle this situation,” the manager says.
In the video, when Harrold and his son attempt to leave the woman approaches them, saying, “I’m not letting him walk away with my phone.” The video then shows her on the floor, but it’s unclear how she landed there. She approaches them again and the teen’s father is heard shouting for her to get her hands off before the video cuts out.
In his Instagram post, Harrold said the woman scratched him and grabbed his son. He told NBC that after the video cut off, the woman, “tackled my son, you know, trying to reach in his pockets, reach in my pockets.”
Harrold suffered slight injuries but his son was not injured, the NYPD said. His son told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he’s ”shell-shocked.”
“I don’t know what would have happened if my Dad wasn’t there, honestly,” the teen said. Asked what he would say if he got the opportunity to speak to the woman, he said he’d expect an apology. Then he said he’d ask her, “why would she do something like this to a kid who has never met you at all?”
The woman’s phone was returned to her at the hotel moments after the incident by a ride-share vehicle she used to try to check into the hotel, Harrison said.
Hotel says ‘more could have been done’ to defuse the dispute
De Blasio on Twitter Monday called the incident “racism. Plain and simple.”
“It would be horrific at any age, but it’s especially offensive that it happened to a child,” he said. “To Keyon Harrold Jr. and his family: I am so sorry this happened to you.”
In a statement, Arlo Hotels said “more could have been done to de-escalate the dispute.”
“We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo hotel,” the statement said. “In investigating the incident further, we’ve learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence …. No Arlo guest — or any person — should be subject to this kind of behavior.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump accused the hotel of empowering the woman’s accusations by asking Harrold’s son to prove his innocence and called for charges against her.
“As this year of racial awareness is drawing to a close, it’s deeply troubling that incidents like this one, in which a Black child is viewed as and treated like a criminal, continue to happen,” Crump said in a statement.
“We strongly urge Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to bring assault and battery charges against this woman to send the message that hateful, racially motivated behavior is unacceptable,” Crump added. “This is what it will take to drive change. We also call for a civil rights investigation into the Arlo Hotel for its implicit bias in its treatment of Keyon.”
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