SOHO, Manhattan – A woman physically attacked a black teenager and fled the scene, fleeing the police, after falsely accusing the 14-year-old teenager of stealing her cell phone.
This is the NYPD’s description of the incident in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in SoHo last Saturday. The chief of detectives also released surveillance video of the incident, which supports allegations made by the teenager’s family that the woman committed a series of crimes against him.
All of this provoked Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday to talk about the race situation. Still, the attack is not being considered a hate crime at this time.
The meeting came when Keyon Harrold – a trumpeter who played the soundtrack to a Grammy-winning film and collaborated with Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Eminem and many other famous artists – stepped off the elevator and entered the Arlo Hotel lobby.
“We were literally coming down for a snack, just me and my son,” said Harrold, at a news conference on Wednesday, when he said a woman shouted the false accusation.
He recorded the meeting on his cell phone. This video has been viewed millions of times on social media and widely shared. It ends, according to Harrold, when he had to stop to intervene and protect his son from the woman, when she physically assaulted the teenager.
The surveillance video released on Wednesday night shows the real attack.
In a footage apparently provided to investigators by the hotel, the woman grabs the young man and pulls him to the floor. The attack was captured from two different camera surveillance angles.
In a tweet, NYPD detective chief Rodney Harrison said the woman “physically attacked … a 14-year-old innocent … and fled the scene before the police arrived.”
On Saturday, December 26, the woman in this video falsely accused an innocent 14-year-old teenager of stealing her cell phone. She then began to physically attack him and fled the scene before the police arrived. pic.twitter.com/qtZZWetBWH
– Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) December 31, 2020
He also said the boy was “falsely accused” by the woman. His identity has not been officially released, but the chief’s tweet also shows his face, with the word “wanted” under the image.
The Harrold family is working with a legal team led by prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. At a news conference on Wednesday, Crump said he knew the woman consulted her own lawyer, who has a different view of what happened.
“Trying to claim that she was attacked by Keyon,” said Crump, referring to the renowned trumpeter. “We know that the hotel’s surveillance video has it all.”
On Thursday, at his daily press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio also condemned the false allegation.
“It’s very personal to me,” said the mayor. “I have a colored child who is as good a human being as you could imagine. And yet, I know, he will be scorned and disrespected throughout his life – and it’s not fair, it’s not right and it has to end.”
Meanwhile, the teenager’s mother, Kat Rodriguez, said that although the family is strong, the crime that occurred had a negative effect on her son.
“He said it and we heard him say it,” Rodriguez said at a news conference on Wednesday, “‘She was probably scared of me. And threatened.’ No 14 year old boy should be scared and threatened! “The mother exclaimed.
According to law enforcement sources, the father, Keyon Harrold, went to the local police station to see a list of photos that included images of the woman. Sources also said the woman, who has not yet been officially identified, faces aggression, attempted theft and endangering a child’s well-being.
Activist Rev. Al Sharpton spoke on Wednesday.
“We consider this to be a crime of prejudice,” he said. He, attorney Crump, and the family had just met with Manhattan’s public prosecutor Cy Vance when Sharpton spoke. “He said, ‘I’m not ruling that out,'” Sharpton said, quoting the prosecutor, “‘but I’m not committing myself to that.”
The New York State Criminal Law, which the NYPD follows to determine hate crime charges, states that “An incident of prejudice is any offense or illegal act that is motivated wholly or substantially by the identification of a person, group or location with a particular race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, ancestry, nationality or sexual orientation (including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender), as determined by the Hate Crime Task Force Commander. ”
Meanwhile, a petition initiated by Crump in support of the family, and asking for criminal charges in the case, received more than 75,000 signatures. The lawyer is looking for 100,000 signatures on the petition he launched on Tuesday.