Keyon Harrold Jr., the son of a Grammy Award-winning trumpet player, was falsely accused of stealing a woman’s phone at a hotel in New York City.
According to Harrold’s parents, Keyon Sr. and his ex-wife Kat, told TMZ, their 14-year-old was left “seriously traumatized” after allegedly being harassed and assaulted by Miya Ponsetto, 22, at Manhattan’s Arlo Hotel in SoHo.
The incident, which was recorded on cellphone video, happened in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel on Saturday, where the teen and his father were staying as guests.
The teen’s father Keyon Harrold Sr. posted his own video of the incident to his Instagram page. His video, which is about a minute long and has been viewed more than 2 million times.
The video has since gone viral and has prompted accusations of racial profiling toward Harrold and his family.
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On Saturday, December 26, the woman in this video falsely accused an innocent 14-year-old teenager of stealing her cellphone. She then proceeded to physically attack him and fled the location before police officers arrived on scene. pic.twitter.com/qtZZWetBWH
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) December 31, 2020
The woman’s cellphone was later found in an Uber.
She was arrested after a brief car chase. “They had to pull her out of the car. They did use physical force,” Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department told The Daily News. “She tried to slam the door on the leg of one of our deputies and so she was forcibly removed from the vehicle.”
Ponsetto was arrested on “a warrant out of New York,” Buschow said.
She is expected to be charged with attempted robbery, law enforcement sources told The New York Post.