A Black jazz musician’s 14-year-old son was falsely accused of stealing an iPhone. Prosecutors are investigating

After viewing surveillance video of the incident, investigators are contemplating charging the girl with assault and presumably grand larceny or tried theft, stated Rodney Harrison, chief of detectives for the New York Police Division, on Tuesday.

The lady disputes the accusations towards her

The lady has not come ahead, however CNN talked to her by telephone Tuesday and she or he disputed Harrold’s account of what occurred.

Whereas the 22-year-old lady claimed she was assaulted throughout the altercation, CNN hasn’t been in a position to corroborate her account with investigators or with the lodge the place the incident happened.

In a 20-minute telephone interview, she stated the incident unfolded after she first demanded to see the lodge’s surveillance video to try to pinpoint who could have taken her telephone. She says she then requested another person within the lodge foyer to “empty their pocket,” earlier than finally confronting Keyon Harrold Jr., who she maintained had her telephone in his pocket.

“That is when every little thing acquired a little bit bit extra severe,” the girl stated referring to the interplay.

All through the telephone name, the girl’s account of the incident was rambling at instances. She supplied further info of occasions previous and unrelated to the incident that CNN has been unable to substantiate.

When requested if she’s involved about presumably dealing with costs and total how she is portrayed within the video, she stated, “In fact I fear. That is not who I’m. I truly… attempt very onerous to guarantee that I’m at all times doing the fitting factor.”

The lady advised CNN that she is prepared to cooperate with the continuing investigation, however she hasn’t acquired a name from the NYPD but nor has she reached out herself. She additionally stated she’d be prepared to speak to the Harrolds.

After she agreed to supply proof that might assist affirm her declare that she was assaulted, she stopped responding to CNN’s telephone calls and textual content messages.

CNN is just not naming her at the moment as a result of she stated she has issues for her security unrelated to this incident.

CNN additionally requested a police report from the NYPD, however it declined to supply one, saying it sometimes doesn’t in such conditions.

Many who’ve seen Harrold’s video, together with New York Metropolis Mayor Invoice de Blasio, have alleged racism. However there aren’t any plans “at the moment” to cost the girl with a bias crime, Harrison stated.

“The investigation continues to be preliminary, lots of work nonetheless must be carried out,” he stated. “The complainants are cooperating and I am assured that the investigators from the primary precinct will make an arrest on this case before later.”

Harrold says the encounter occurred on the best way to breakfast

​The teenager tells her “that is my telephone” and ​his father tells him he would not have to clarify something to the girl. The lady comes nearer to them, demanding the case be taken off the telephone.

She then faucets a male lodge worker on the shoulder and asks him to carry the telephone to her. “Actually get it again for me, please,” she says.

The elder Harrold responds, “Are you kidding me? You’re feeling like there’s just one iPhone made on the planet?” A person who identifies himself because the lodge supervisor asks to see the telephone however the teen’s father refuses. “I am making an attempt to settle this example,” the supervisor says.

Within the video, when Harrold and his son try to depart the girl approaches them, saying, “I am not letting him stroll away with my telephone.” The video then reveals her on the ground, however it’s unclear how she landed there. She approaches them once more and the teenager’s father ​is heard shouting for her to get ​her fingers off earlier than the video cuts out.

“I do not know what would have occurred if my Dad wasn’t there, truthfully,” ​the teenager stated. ​Requested what he would say if he acquired the chance to talk to the girl, he stated he’d count on an apology. Then he stated he’d ask her, “why would she do one thing like this to a child who has by no means met you in any respect?”

The lady’s telephone was returned to her on the lodge moments after the incident by a ride-share car she used to attempt to examine into the lodge, Harrison stated.

Lodge says ‘extra may have been carried out’ to defuse the dispute

“It might be horrific at any age, however it’s particularly offensive that it occurred to a baby,” he stated. “To Keyon Harrold Jr. and his household: I’m so sorry this occurred to you.”

In a press release, Arlo Resorts stated “extra may have been carried out to de-escalate the dispute.”

“We’re deeply disheartened in regards to the latest incident of baseless accusation, prejudice and assault towards an harmless visitor of Arlo lodge,” the assertion stated. “In investigating the incident additional, we have discovered that the supervisor on responsibility promptly known as the police relating to the girl’s conduct and that lodge safety intervened to forestall additional violence …. No Arlo visitor — or any particular person — needs to be topic to this sort of habits.”

“As this yr of racial consciousness is drawing to an in depth, it is deeply troubling that incidents like this one, wherein a Black baby is considered as and handled like a prison, proceed to occur,” Crump stated in a press release.

“We strongly urge Manhattan District Legal professional Cy Vance Jr. to carry assault and battery costs towards this lady to ship the message that hateful, racially motivated habits is unacceptable,” Crump added. “That is what it can take to drive change. We additionally name for a civil rights investigation into the Arlo Lodge for its implicit bias in its remedy of Keyon.”