What you should know
- Jazz musician Keyon Harrold claims that he and his son were assaulted at a luxury hotel in New York City by a woman who accused the teenager of stealing her cell phone over the weekend.
- Harrold posted a video on Instagram Sunday showing part of the incident in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in SoHo, sparking conversations about how black people are treated and perceived.
- The renowned trumpeter said he and his 14-year-old son came down from their hotel room on Saturday for breakfast when they were accosted by the woman, who has not been identified, and hotel staff. Harrold said an Uber driver later gave the woman her phone back. Harrold filed a police report against the woman.
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NEW YORK – Jazz musician Keyon Harrold claims he and his son were assaulted at a luxury hotel in New York City by a woman who accused the teenager of stealing her cell phone over the weekend.
Harrold posted a video on Instagram Sunday showing part of the incident in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in SoHo, sparking conversations about how black people are treated and perceived. The renowned trumpeter said he and his 14-year-old son came down from their hotel room on Saturday for breakfast when they were accosted by the woman, who has not been identified, and hotel staff.
In the minute-long video, the woman kept insisting that Harrold’s son show her his phone, claiming it belonged to him and saying “he wasn’t leaving” until they prove his phone wasn’t stolen.
“This incident went on for five more minutes, I protected my son from this lunatic. She scratched me, tackled him and grabbed him,” Harrold wrote in the Instagram caption. The footage doesn’t appear to show anyone being physically attacked, but Harrold can be heard saying “take your hands off” before the video ends abruptly.
Harrold said he later filed a police report against the woman. The NYPD confirmed to NBC News that the incident took place on Saturday, but did not provide other details.
Harrold said the woman was not a current hotel guest and that she left on December 23, a few days before the incident, but that the hotel manager still appeared to be trying to get Harrold’s son to show the woman his phone.
“He really empowered her! He didn’t even consider the fact that we were actually the guests! Now think about the trauma my son now has to endure, just coming down the stairs to have brunch with his father,” Harrold wrote, adding that an Uber driver later gave the woman her phone back.
NBC News is trying to identify and communicate with the woman involved in this incident.
In a follow-up post, Harrold warned against “indicting a woman before she is proven guilty.”
The Arlo Hotel later posted their statement on Instagram, issuing an apology to Harrold and saying that the incident was “inexcusable.”
“Upon further investigation into the incident, we learned that the manager on duty immediately called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; even so, more could have been done to de-escalate the dispute, “the statement read. .
The case is the latest in a series of on-camera clashes in which African Americans have been wrongly accused over the past year. The most recent and widely shared incident occurred in Central Park in May when a white woman falsely accused Christian Cooper, a black bird watcher, of assault after he asked her to put his dog on a leash.
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