Angry ‘Karen’ Filmed Attacking Grammy-Winning Musician and His Son, Accusing Them of Theft

A white woman is in hot water and likely in hiding after she was captured on video assaulting a world famous jazz musician and his son while falsely accusing them of stealing her iPhone.

On Saturday, the unidentified woman was filmed in an agitated state as she accosted Grammy-award winning trumpet player Keyon Harrold and his son, both of whom are Black, in the lobby of the Arlo SoHo Hotel.

Intense video footage of the incident, which was filmed by Harrold and posted on his Instagram page, the musician can be heard telling the woman and a hotel manager that his son did not steal her iPhone.

As the clearly unnerved woman can be heard frantically telling the hotel manager that she was a victim of theft at the hands of the young teen, the son pleads, “this is my phone,” to which Harrold responds, saying “You don’t have to explain nothing to her!”

While the woman insists that the phone was hers and demands that the child offers proof that it is his, Harrold responds: “Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone made in the world?”

At that point, things take an ugly turn as the woman can be seen lunging at the teenager and an altercation unfolds. The woman can be heard screaming, “I’m not letting him walk away with my phone!” before falling to the ground. After she gets up, she storms toward Harrold before the camera shakes violently and the video cuts off while he yells, “Listen, get your hands off — !”

In a humiliating development, Harrold claims that mere minutes later, the woman’s Uber driver returned to the hotel and gave her iPhone back to her after she apparently forgot it in her car.

“Her phone was magically returned by an Uber driver a few minutes after this incident,” Harrold wrote. “No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me. No apologies from the establishment.”

The woman has since been dubbed a “Karen,” the nickname that has been adopted by social media users for white women who demand to speak to a store manager or throw unreasonable tantrums, many of which are race-related or racist in nature, in reaction to perceived slights.

“If anyone recognizes this person, please tag or DM,” he wrote. “I hate I have to post this!!! I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home!!! I typically try to keep things positive, but nothing about this video is positive.”

While the video only lasted one minute, the altercation lasted over five minutes, Harrold said.

“She scratched me … she Tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!!”

“No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me,” he continued. “No apologies from the establishment. This sh*t happens too often. It needs to stop!!!”

The video has since gone viral, garnering over 700,000 views and a number of comments from other award-winning artists and notable cultural figures. Major influencers including D.L. Hughley, Shaun King, Eric Robertson, and others have also shared the video from their own accounts.

The Arlo SoHo Hotel has also drawn the ire of internet users who are angry at the establishment for backing the unfounded claims of the hysterical woman, with many users review-bombing the hotel’s website and leaving angry messages on the hotel’s Instagram Account.

One comment on a recent post from the hotel read:

“Never staying at this hotel after what happened to a guest, Keyon Harold, who was assaulted and falsely accused of theft and then assaulted by another guest of the hotel, while the hotel workers looked on! Why would anyone stay at an establishment that cant even keep their guests safe? Its a pitiful failure on arlo hotels part and indicative of how poorly run it is if these situations are allowed to happen. SHAME!”

Harrold, who began his Instagram post by saying “I hate I have to post this!”, is a celebrated and world renowned musician who has released solo albums while also working with such popular musicians as Beyonce, D’Angelo, Rihanna, Common, Maxwell, Otis Brown III, Robert Glasper, Bobby Shmurda and Mobb Deep, according to his website.

Harrold also won a Grammy award in 2017 for his contributions to Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead, and he has devoted his music to social justice causes. The Ferguson, Missouri, native dedicated the song “MB Lament” to police shooting victim Michael Brown on his most recent solo album, The Mugician.

The jazz trumpeter also played live at the White House during Common’s 2016 NPR Tiny Desk concert, when the artists performed the Emmy-winning theme to Ava Duvernay’s documentary 13^th.