New video shows woman attacking Black teen at Arlo Hotel over iPhone
The NYPD said they are currently trying to track down the woman who lives out of state and faces charges ranging from assault to attempted robbery.
A new surveillance video of the unidentified woman who falsely accused a Black teenager of stealing her iPhone shows her physically attacking him at the Arlo SoHo Hotel last week before running off.
The video, released by the New York Police Department, shows the white woman lunging toward Keyon Harrold Jr., the 14-year-old son of Grammy-award winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold Sr. The woman then forcefully pulls him to the ground.
Read More: ‘Karen’ allegedly assaults, falsely accuses Grammy-winning father’s son of iPhone theft
Moments after the physical altercation, however, the 22-year-old woman’s cell phone was returned to her by an Uber driver.
Cell phone footage of the Dec. 26 incident captured by Harrold Sr. went viral after he posted it on social media, accusing the woman of racially profiling his son. The video, however, was from Harrold’s vantage point and did not fully capture the woman’s attack — until now.
The Harrold family has since obtained legal representation by famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has called on Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to charge the woman with assault. The NYPD says they have been able to identify the woman who lives out of state and face charges ranging from assault to attempted robbery. Police are currently trying to track her down.
Read More: Ben Crump demands charges against ‘Karen’ who allegedly attacked Black teen at hotel
On Wednesday, Al Sharpton joined Crump and the family at a rally held in support of the Harrold Jr.
“When I saw this story, I thought about how I was one of those kids whose father never took him anywhere for Christmas, never had brunch with my father,” Sharpton said, according to ABC-7.
“And for this Black man to take his Black son, put him in a hotel during a pandemic, and spend Christmas with him, raising him, and to be assaulted because of the color of their skin, I wanted to stand with this man and this woman who provided for their son, and they’re being criminalized for it. The arrogance and audacity of this woman.”
The publicly unidentified woman recently spoke to CNN claiming she was the actual victim. The news network described the woman as “rambling” during a phone conversation and that she expressed concern over how she came across in the viral video of the incident.
“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,” she said.
At one point, the woman claimed that she was the one assaulted despite the video uploaded by Harrold Sr. appearing to show her lunge at his son. CNN reported that the woman stopped responding to texts and messages after requesting proof of her allegations.
In an interview with TMZ on Monday, Harrold Sr. and his wife, Kat Harrold, explained they believed race played a factor.
“Her eyes were red, looked at me and said ‘He has my phone,” Harrold Sr. recounted of what happened after he and his son stepped off the elevator. The woman made a beeline for the 14-year-old as he tried to maintain his composure and explain that his son would not need to steal an iPhone.
Kat Harrold explained that her son asking why this happened to him is why a “cookie cutter apology” from the hotel will not suffice.
“And when you have to sit down with your son and say ‘Well son, it might be because you’re Black and it might be because she felt threatened and you didn’t fit into the nice hotel.’ No one should have to deal with that,” she said.
theGrio’s Stephanie Guerilus and Matthew Allen contributed to this report.
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