Jazz musician Keyon Harrold’s 14-year-old son was racially profiled and accused of stealing an iPhone on Sunday at the Arlo hotel in New York City. Harrold recorded the video on his phone and posted it on Instagram. In the video, we see an unidentified White woman accusing Keyon Harrold Jr. of having her phone although they’ve never met. The woman even tackled the child and tried to prevent him from leaving the hotel.
The video also shows the hotel manager seemingly take the woman’s side and asks to see Harrold’s son phone. An irate Harold can be heard saying, “Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?”
Harrold and his son were guests at the hotel and walking into the lobby when the situation started.
Harold posted the confrontation and wrote a heartfelt post describing the incident. It reads:
“I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home!!! I typically try to keep things positive, but nothing about this video is positive.
“The lady in this video assaulted my 14-year-old son and me as we came down from our room in the @arlohotels Arlo Soho to get breakfast. This person quote on quote “lost” her iPhone, and apparently, my son magically acquired it, which merely ridiculous. This incident went on for five more minutes, me protecting my son from this lunatic. She scratched me; she Tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!! Now watch it again. This lady is not even a guest at the hotel. She checked out of the hotel on the 23rd of December; today is the 26th. Now watch as the manager advocates for the lady who is not even a hotel guest, insisting and attempting to use his managerial authority to force my son to show his phone to this random lady. He actually empowered her!!! He didn’t even consider the fact we were actually the guests! Now think about the trauma that my son now has to carry, only coming downstairs to have box day brunch with his dad. Then… her phone was magically returned by an Uber driver a few minutes after this incident. No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me. No apologies from the establishment. This s–t happens so often. It needs to stop!!! If anyone recognizes this person, please tag or DM.”
After the incident, the woman’s phone was returned by an Uber driver because she apparently left it in the car. Harold and his family are in talks with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who issued a statement on Monday, calling on the Manhattan district attorney to bring assault and battery charges against the woman. The celebrated trumpeter has played live with Beyonce, Jay-Z and more in the past.
