Jazz musician Keyon Harrold accused a woman of racially profiling his son after a Dec. 26 incident at the Arlo Hotel in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, a video shows.
Harrold posted a video on Instagram in which a woman accuses Harrold’s 14-year-old son Keyon Jr. of stealing her phone. The Arlo’s manager intervenes, asking the boy to show him the device, the video shows. The video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
In the video, the woman tells the hotel manager, “That’s mine. Literally, get it back.” Harrold responds, “Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?” Later in the day, an Uber driver found the phone and returned it to the Arlo’s front desk.
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The woman, whose name remains unknown, checked out of the hotel a few days before she accused Keyon Jr. of stealing her phone, according to The New York Times. People rushed to identify the woman, but Harrold followed up on Instagram with a request that people stop “doing what we are fighting against, which is accusing a woman before she is proven guilty.” He also thanked supporters for their well wishes.
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Harrold told The New York Times that he was staying at the hotel so that he could focus on his music. A jazz trumpeter from Ferguson, Mo., he has released two solo albums and has been featured on songs by Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige.(RELATED: Victim In Central Park ‘Karen’ Case Unwilling To Cooperate In Investigation)