Grammy-winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold, who played with artists like Beyoncé, Jay Z and Common, had just come down to Boxing Day brunch at the Arlo SoHo hotel in New York with his 14-year-old son when a woman accused the teenager to steal your phone.
“This is my phone,” said Kenyon Harrold Jr. in a now viral video recorded by his father, who tells him that he doesn’t need to explain himself to this random woman. Harrold and his son are black.
“Take the case out. This is mine. Literally, take it back,” the unidentified woman in a mask demands from a hotel manager.
“Are you kidding me? Do you think there is only one iPhone made in the world?” Harrold, an acclaimed trumpeter, can be heard saying.
The manager demands that the teenager show him the phone, since his father says they had just left the elevator when the woman started accusing them.
“He’s got my phone! Show me the proof! He’s not leaving,” screams the woman.
“What, you see two black people -” Harrold says, before the woman interrupts, “No, I’m not going to let you get away with my phone.”
She then pounces on them and falls to the ground.
“This incident lasted another five minutes, protecting my son from this lunatic,” wrote Harrold when posting the video on Instagram. “She scratched me; she grabbed and grabbed him. He’s a child !!!”
Harrold Jr.’s parents – his mother Katty Rodriguez is also a successful musician, who worked as a saxophonist for Beyoncé for more than a decade – believe that the treatment of her son was a clear case of racial discrimination.
“The most painful feeling today as a parent was feeling helpless to protect my son from racial hatred,” wrote Rodriguez on Instagram.
The hotel’s viral video is reminiscent of other incidents where blacks had authorities unfairly called on them or falsely accused of crimes, such as when a white woman called the police for a bird watcher in Central Park after he asked her to put your dog on a leash.
“I’m furious !!! We see this shit happening all the time, but it hits different when it gets home !!!” Harrold said on Instagram. “I usually try to keep things positive, but nothing in this video is positive.”
Harrold said the woman, who is not identified, was once a guest at the hotel, but checked out days before, but the hotel staff supported the woman and not him and his son.
“Now watch how the manager defends the lady who is not even a guest at the hotel, insisting and trying to use his administrative authority to force my son to show the phone to this random lady,” wrote Harrold. “He really empowered her !!! He didn’t even consider the fact that we were really the guests! Now think about the trauma that my son now has to carry, just going down the stairs to have [boxing] brunch of the day with dad. “
Peter Van Breukelen / Redferns
Keyon Harrold will perform at Lantaren Venster on April 25, 2019 in Rotterdam.
Rodriguez also said he was deeply frustrated by the hotel’s response.
“I expect this from Karen’s in Amerikka, but not from hospitality professionals !!!!! Your job is to be hospitable to everyone!” she wrote on Instagram.
Arlo Hotels did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the hotel acknowledges that “more could have been done to lessen the dispute”.
“We are deeply discouraged by the recent incident of unfounded accusation, prejudice and aggression against an innocent guest at the Arlo hotel,” said the hotel.
Harrold said that shortly after the woman’s false accusations, an Uber driver returned the iPhone she had left in the car, and that neither the woman nor the hotel apologized.
However, the family reported the incident to the police, and an NYPD spokesman confirmed to BuzzFeed News that a harassment complaint had been filed.