A woman falsely accused Grammy-winning artist Keyon Harrold's teenage son of stealing her cellphone in the lobby of a Manhattan hotel in a video that is being widely circulated on social media.
On Sunday, the jazz musician, who appeared on the Grammy-winning soundtrack for the 2016 Miles Davis biopic "Miles Ahead," took to Instagram to share video footage of the encounter, claiming his son was accused of theft because of the color of his skin. "I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home!!!," Harrold, wrote in the caption.
'Show Me the Phone'
The video shows the woman accosting Harrold and her 14-year-old son in the lobby of the Arlo hotel in SoHo shortly after they stepped out of their room to get breakfast. The woman can be seen frantically telling a manager at the hotel that Harrold's son had her phone.
"This is my phone," the teenager responds before Harold intervenes, "You don't need to explain nothing to her."
"He took the case off, that's mine." The unidentified woman tells the manager. "Literally get it back."
"Are you kidding me? You think there's only one iPhone made in the world," Harold tells the woman, who responds with, "Okay, then show me the phone."
Manager 'Advocates' For the Woman
The manager then asks the teenager if he can have a look at the phone, angering Harold who accuses the manager of taking the woman's side. "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," Harrold wrote. "He actually empowered her!!!"
When he refuses to pay heed to the woman's demands, she lunges towards his son, prompting Harrold to step in and protect his son.
The video shows the woman continuously lunging and reaching towards Harrold as he shields his son from her. "She scratched me," Harrold wrote, "she tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!!" Watch the video below:
Hotel Issues Apology
Harold noted that minutes after the incident was recorded the woman's phone was returned to her by an Uber driver. However, she did not even apologize to him or his son and neither did the hotel, Harrold said.
An Arlo spokesman later issued an apology to Harrold and his son in a statement and said that although the manager called the cops and hotel security stepped in, "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 a follow-up post on Instagram, Harrold thanked fans for their support and noted that they had filed a report for assault with the police. He added that they would confirm the identity of the woman in the video once confirmed and warned internet sleuths not to falsely accuse others of being the woman in the video. "Let's be mindful and spread love through this hatefulness," he wrote.
