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The Manhattan District Attorney and the NYPD are both said to be investigating the so called Karen who falsely accused a black teen of stealing her iPhone.
Hotel guests Keyon Harrold and his 14-year-old son were approached in the lobby of the boutique Arlo Hotel in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on Saturday afternoon.
Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Harrold filmed the incident and then shared it to Instagram. The footage shows the father and son being accosted by an unidentified young woman who claimed that Harrold’s teen boy had her cell phone.
Now both the Manhattan DA and the NYPD are investigating the incident, New York Magazine reports. A spokesman for the DA told DailyMail.com: ‘Our office is thoroughly investigating this incident’. They declined to elaborate further. DailyMail.com has contacted NYPD for additional clarification.
Attorney Ben Crump on Monday called for her to be criminally charged.
He tweeted: ‘The parents of @KeyonHarrold Jr. and I are calling on @ManhattanDA to bring charges of assault and battery against the woman who attacked Keyon and falsely accused him of stealing her phone at @ArloHotels #ArloSoho
‘Join us in sending a clear message that hateful, racially motivated behavior is unacceptable. Email Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. and urge him to charge the woman who attacked Keyon Harrold Jr.’
A viral video was posted to social media showing a ‘Karen’ (left) falsely accusing a black teenager of stealing her iPhone. The woman demanded that the manager of the Arlo SoHo hotel (seen right) take the phone from the boy so she could make sure it wasn’t hers
Attorney Ben Crump on Monday called for her to be criminally charged
The video shows one of the managers at the hotel asking Harrold’s son to see the phone, angering his father who accused the manager of taking the woman’s side.
When Harrold refused the woman’s demand to show her the phone, she lunged toward his son, prompting Harrold to protect him.
The woman’s phone was later returned to her by an Uber driver, proving that her claims it was stolen by the teen were false.
The boy’s mom Kat told TMZ Monday: ‘He asked my “why did she think that she could accuse me?” And when you have to sit down with your son and say “well son, it might be because you are black and it might be because she felt threatened and you didn’t fit into this nice hotel”.
‘No one should ever have to deal with that. No one. No parent, but definitely no 14-year-old child.’
Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Harrold filmed the incident and shared it
An Instagrammer last seen in a photograph on Instagram at the hotel six days ago has since posted a denial that she is the ‘Karen’ after being bombarded with abuse on social media accusing her of being the woman in the video.
Cassandra Medina, a registered nurse from Staten Island, posted a message on her Instagram Sunday saying: ‘I’ve been tagged all morning in this video and this is not me.It’s not ok to be falsely accused on social media and I wouldn’t want that happening to anyone.’
She then addressed Harrold in her post, saying: ‘I hope you find truely (sic) who this person is because what she did is disgusting and this hotel should be held accountable.’
Her account, which has 1,792 followers, shows pictures of her at the Arlo in SoHo and NoMad.
The video was posted on social media by Keyon Harrold, a professional jazz musician who has played with the likes of Common, Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg. Harrold alleges that the woman in the video tackled his son while trying to get the phone. He is seen above performing in Texas in 2019
At one point in the video, the woman is seen lunging at the boy. Harrold says that she tackled his son and tried to search through his pockets
Cassandra Medina denied on her social media page that she is the woman in the video. Medina posted this image of her at the Harold’s restaurant in the Arlo SoHo last week
The one-minute-long clip starts showing the woman and the hotel manager in the lobby with Harrold recording on his cell phone.
‘This is my phone,’ Harrold’s son, who is not seen in the footage, is heard telling the woman and the manager.
‘You don’t have to explain nothing to her,’ Harrold tells his son.
The woman then points to the phone and tells the manager that the case is the same one that she has.
‘That’s mine,’ she tells the manager. She then tells the manager: ‘Get it back.’
Harrold responds to the woman, saying: ‘Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?’
When the woman asks Harrold to see the phone, he replies: ‘No, get a life.’
‘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,’ Harrold wrote on his Instagram page
At one point in the video, the manager (right) is seen asking Harrold’s son to show him the phone
Throughout the viral clip, the woman is seen and heard demanding that the manager take the boy’s phone. The woman’s claims that the boy stole the phone were proven false after an Uber driver later dropped off her actual phone at the hotel
Harrold then tells the woman that she should use the Find My app, which helps locate missing Apple devices.
The woman then tells Harrold that the Find My app can only be accessed through the phone.
The video then shows the manager approach Harrold’s son asking him to see the phone.
‘No, you can’t,’ Harrold tells the manager.
‘I’m the manager of the hotel,’ the manager tells Harrold, who replies: ‘I don’t care!’
During the exchange, the woman continues to encourage the manager to retrieve what she believes is her iPhone.
Harrold tries to plead his case, saying it wasn’t plausible that his son would have someone else’s phone since he just got to the lobby from the elevator.
‘Didn’t you see me just come downstairs out of the f***ing elevator?’ Harrold tells the manager.
The manager protests, saying: ‘I’m trying to help.’
The woman is seen being helped up onto her feet by a hotel employee after attempting to grab the phone from Harrold’s son
‘No, but you’re not helping,’ Harrold replies.
‘I am,’ the manager insists.
Harrold tells the manager that he was being ‘disrespectful.’
‘I’m trying to settle the situation,’ the manager says.
Harrold replies: ‘My son has nothing to do with her.’
The woman once again repeats her demand to see the phone, saying: ‘No, he’s not leaving. Show me the proof.’
Harrold refuses and begins to walk away from the lobby toward what appear to be the elevators.
‘You better get on,’ Harrold tells the woman.
The woman, who appears to be highly distressed, walks toward Harrold and his son, saying: ‘No, I’m not letting him walk away with my phone.’
While the video is not clear, the woman appears to lunge toward Harrold and his son.
In the next frame, she is seen on the ground as the manager helps her back to her feet.
‘No, please get my phone back,’ the woman begs the manager.
The video clip ends with the woman once again approaching Harrold in an attempt to get the phone.
Instagrammer Cassandra Medina, a nurse from Staten Island, has denied that she is the woman in the video
Medina is seen above at the Arlo NoMad hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The above image was posted in late August
Medina posted a message on her Instagram page which read: ‘That person in the video is not me’
‘I’ve been tagged all morning in this video and this is not me,’ she wrote on her Instagram account on Sunday. ‘It’s not ok to be falsely accused on social media and I wouldn’t want that happening to anyone.
Harrold told The New York Times that the woman tackled his son and tried to look into his pockets before being physically separated from him.
‘I hate I have to post this!!!’ Harrold wrote on his Instagram feed.
‘I am furious!!! We see this cr** 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 [is] 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*** happens so often. It needs to stop!!! If anyone recognizes this person, please tag or DM.’
The Arlo SoHo hotel in New York City is seen in the above file photo
Arlo Hotels released a statement on Sunday which read: ‘We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo Hotel’
Harrold told the Times that the incident left him ‘shellshocked.’
‘I wonder what would happen if it were different, if it were a black woman and there was a white 14-year-old,’ he said.
Arlo Hotels released a statement on Sunday which read: ‘We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo Hotel.
‘In investigating the incident further, we’ve learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; still, more could have been done to deescalate the dispute.
‘No Arlo guest – or any person – should be subject to this kind of behavior.
‘We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience, and have reached out to them directly to express our sincere regret and to offer help in dealing with this traumatic event.
‘We are committed to making sure this never happens again at any of our hotels.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the hotel for comment.
Harrold is an award winning trumpeter who has played with bestselling recording artists including Common, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna
Arlo SoHo is one of three boutique hotels operated by Arlo Hotels. The other two locations are in the NoMad section of Manhattan and the Arlo Nautilus on Miami Beach.
On social media, there are growing calls to boycott the hotel to protest the manager’s behavior.
Harrold posted another message to Instagram on Sunday saying that he went public with the video because the hotel manager allowed the woman to leave while waiting for the police to arrive.
‘Before posting this video yesterday, we prayed about how this would impact us as a family and above all how it would impact our son,’ Harrold wrote.
Harrold posted another message to Instagram on Sunday saying that he went public with the video because the hotel manager allowed the woman to leave while waiting for the police to arrive
He added: ‘We asked for advice from professionals and weighed the decision for several hours.
‘The only reason we decided to go public and post on social media was because the hotel which had a security guard on duty let this young lady leave while waiting for the police to respond after she assaulted my son several times which is not seen on this video because my sons father dropped the phone to protect our son!
‘The police came and filed a report and said we would have to wait 3 days.
‘The hotel just went about their business after basically sweeping it under the rug with an “sorry this happened to you”.
‘Not until they were faced with scrutiny through social media did they answer a post on Instagram.
‘They answered a post on Instagram instead of going to my son and his fathers room which they were still checked in.
‘We are hurt and saddened but we are not people who want anyone to be falsely accused or want to ruin someone’s life.
‘Let’s be mindful and spread love through this hatefulness. We will share the guilty party when we properly ID them.
‘Until then, please do to others as you would want them to do to you.’
Harrold is an award winning trumpeter who has played with bestselling recording artists including Common, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
A native of Ferguson, Missouri, Harrold moved to New York City and started to play jazz as a professional musician at the age of 19.
In 2017, he appeared on the soundtrack of a biopic about Miles Davis titled ‘Miles Ahead,’ which won a Grammy Award.
Harrold told the Times that although he has a permanent residence in Long Island City, Queens, he had moved into the Arlo Hotel to find artistic and creative inspiration.
He said he had been staying at the hotel since mid-December.
As a result of the incident, he said he plans to move out of the hotel.
The incident on Saturday has drawn comparisons to the Memorial Day encounter between the ‘Central Park Karen’ and a black bird-watcher.
Amy Cooper was filmed hysterically dialing 911 on Harvard-grad Christian Cooper, falsely telling an operator an ‘African American man is threatening my life’.
She was charged by Manhattan prosecutors with one count of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree — a crime that carries a sentence of up to one year in jail.
The incident on Saturday has drawn comparisons to the Memorial Day encounter between the ‘Central Park Karen’ and a black bird-watcher. Amy Cooper (left) was filmed hysterically dialing 911 on Harvard-grad Christian Cooper (right), falsely telling an operator an ‘African American man is threatening my life’.
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