The Manhattan DA is investigating the events that took place in a now-viral video where a white woman can be seen falsely accusing a black teen of stealing her cell phone inside of a New York City hotel lobby.

The altercation took place the weekend after Christmas at the Arlo Hotel in New York City where Grammy award-winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold was with his 14-year-old son. In cellphone footage recorded by Harrold, the woman can be seen accusing the teen of stealing her phone. The woman can be heard yelling at Harrold and a manager who can be seen trying to defuse the situation, “Take the case off that’s mine. Literally get it back,” the woman pleads with the manager while appearing to be agitated and jumpy. Harrold responds with, “You think there’s only one iPhone made in the world?”

As the father and son try to make their way out of the hotel, the woman can be seen following after them, though the footage is shaky. The hotel has since released security footage of the incident where the woman can be seen chasing after Harrold’s son, wrestling him out the door, and then tackling him to the ground.

The Manhattan DA investigating the video has announced that it may follow up with additional charges including assault, grand larceny, and attempted robbery. The video which was uploaded to Instagram was viewed just under three million times. Harrold voices his frustration in the post at the way in which the manager handled both the lady and the situation expressing,

“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.”

In a press conference that was held at the steps of New York’s City Hall, the 14-year-old’s mother, Kat Rodriguez, shared her frustration in a statement, "This fight is not only for our son. It's for all of our sons and daughters. If we were a family that didn't have these connections ... if I was a maid, this story wouldn't have hit the news. What about those people that don't get to get heard?"

After the altercation, the lady eventually did find her phone after it was returned by an Uber driver a few minutes after the incident took place.

Woman in Video Shares Her Side of the Events

The woman at the center of the incident reached out to CNN in a phone interview but has not made her identity known yet. The woman is a 22-year-old who allegedly lives outside of the state. She claims that she was the one who was assaulted during the incident, although she was unable to provide any proof according to CNN. The woman explains that she was concerned about the way she was being portrayed in the media and when asked about whether she was worried about possibly facing charges she explained, “Of course. That's not who I am. I actually ... try very hard to make sure that I am always doing the right thing."

The woman did clarify that she has not reached out to the New York police and the police have not reached out to her either.

The Court of Public Opinion

The widely circulated video has drawn criticisms from many, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio tweeted that the incident was “racism plain and simple.” De Blasio is also calling for charges against the woman because he describes it as a cut-and-dried example of racial profiling.

The Harrold family, who is represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, a notable attorney who has represented several high-profile clients in cases regarding racial profiling and police brutality this year, is calling for charges to be filed. He shared a statement that reads in part, “Compounding the injustice, the hotel manager defaulted to calling on 14-year-old Keyon to prove his innocence, documenting that we have two justice systems in America and that Black people are treated as guilty until proven innocent. We strongly urge Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to bring assault and battery charges against this woman to send the message that hateful, racially motivated behavior is unacceptable. This is what it will take to drive change. We also call for a civil rights investigation into the Arlo Hotel for its implicit bias in its treatment of Keyon.”

This viral video is one of several viral videos displaying racial profiling that have plagued 2020 and 2019. The altercation in the video has drawn similar criticisms to the events that unfolded in a May viral video in which a white woman can be seen harassing a black man, Christian Cooper, who was bird-watching in Central Park. In that video, the woman can be seen telling Cooper that she was going to call the cops and tell them he was threatening her. Cooper later shared a statement in which he expressed, "You know, the simple fact of my skin color means that I run the risk of being perceived as a menace or a threat despite the fact that I'm doing the exact same thing as anybody else in that park."

While the court of public opinion can be an important lens for understanding an incident, social media has undoubtedly raised awareness of instances of racial profiling and racism. In a PBS publication that looks at how social media is changing race injustice in our nation, one analyst explains “the visual nature of platforms such as Twitter allows users to document instances of racism and injustice, providing evidence that such incidents occur more often than mainstream media coverage might suggest.”