Keyon Harrold Jr Wiki – Keyon Harrold Jr Biography
Keyon Harrold Jr, 14, says he’s still ‘shell-shocked’ after the Soho Karen attack on Saturday, where a woman falsely accused him of stealing her phone. His father is a Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, Keyon Harrold.
On Saturday Grammy-winning African American jazz artist Keyon Harrold filmed the moment a young woman approached his 14-year-old son Keyon Jr in the lobby of the boutique Arlo Hotel in SoHo and tackled him.
Her phone was reportedly found in an Uber and returned to her by the driver minutes after the squabble. A source close to the hotel told DailyMail.com the manager involved in the incident has been placed on leave pending an internal investigation.
‘I don’t know what would have happened if my dad wasn’t there. These past few days, still kind of shell-shocked, but I’m hanging in there,’ Keyon Jr said on Good Morning America Tuesday.
‘For me, I was confused because I had never seen that lady ever and I didn’t know what to do in the moment. That’s why I was happy to have my dad here to help me,’ he said.
Video of the incident was shared on social media, where it sparked outrage. The family’s lawyer is petitioning the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to press charges including assault and battery.
Keyon Harrold Jr Age
Keyon Harrold Jr is 14 years old.
Teen and family speak out
On Monday the DA’s office and the New York Police Department said they were investigating the incident.
SoHo Karen is yet to be publicly identified. 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 truly (sic) who this person is because what she did is disgusting and this hotel should be held accountable.’On Tuesday GMA host TJ Holmes asked Keyon Jr why he thinks the woman accused him and physically came after him.
‘I think it’s because, for me, I was a threat to her, and I think she was scared, so that’s why when she saw me she jumped on me and attacked me,’ Keyon Jr said.
His father said the woman was ‘all on him asking him for his phone immediately.’ After a video of the incident cut off she ‘basically tackled, she scratched me.’ Keyon Jr’s mother Kat Rodriguez revealed she feared for her son’s life when she heard about the incident.
‘For me, fear. Fear came in because my son if his father wouldn’t have been there, what would’ve happened to my son if the cops had been called? As a mother, when my son asks me “Why me, mom,” it just hurt,’ she said. ‘The toughest answer that a parent has to give their child – “Son, unfortunately, it might be because you’re black. You’re no longer seen as a child,”‘ she added.
She says she wants to hear SoHo Karen’s side to understand why she launched the attack. When asked if he feared for his life in the attack, Keyon Jr said ‘Yes.’
‘I think because if you’re by yourself, right? And you have no one to help you and you have no proof and it was just me by myself, it would have been a different story,’ Keyon said.
Investigation Report
A white woman was charged with filing a false report for calling 911 and saying she was being threatened by “an African American man” during a dispute with a black man in New York’s Central Park in May. That case inspired New York state lawmakers in June to pass a law that makes it easier under civil rights law to sue an individual who calls a police officer on someone “without reason” because of their background, including race and national origin.
“There are thousands of black men sitting in prison who have been falsely accused,” Harrold said. “That’s why we have to address incidents like this now before they become life-altering, life-impacting issues that negatively and devastatingly affect black people.”
New York City police did not identify the woman, saying only that there was a harassment complaint on file for an incident at the hotel on Saturday. A spokesperson for Manhattan district attorney, Cy Vance, said the office is “thoroughly investigating this incident” but did not elaborate.
Hotel management said in a post on Sunday they reached out to Harrold and his son to apologize.
“We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo Hotel,” they said in a Facebook post. “We are committed to making sure this never happens at one of our hotels again.”
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