Kat Rodriguez got emotional talking about what happened to her son during a press conference held just outside City Hall on Wednesday. 

“It breaks my heart that this is happening to our son,” Rodriguez said.

She was at the rally, organized by Rev. Al Sharpton, asking for justice on behalf of her 14-year-old son, Keyon Harrold Junior, who did not attend.

What You Need To Know

  • According to the NYPD, they have identified a woman who is accused of pushing and grabbing a 14-year-old boy and his father at the Arlo Hotel located at 231 Hudson Street on Sunday

  • On Wednesday, the mother and father of the teen stood alongside civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton and attorney Ben Crump demanding that the woman be held criminally accountable

  • The teen’s father, Keyon Harrold Sr., is a prominent jazz trumpeter and took video of the incident on his cell phone. The video of the incident has now gone viral
  • The teen’s parents, with Sharpton and Crump, meet with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance on Wednesday after they held a press conference outside City Hall

She alleges that her son was falsely accused of stealing a woman’s cell phone during an incident on Sunday at the Arlo Hotel in Soho. 

Rodriguez said that the same woman also attacked her son and his father. 

The incident was captured by the teen’s father, Keyon Harrold Senior, and has since gone viral. 

“She’s on the video. Everybody sees how not to act. How not to react and how not to prejudge somebody. You don’t even know them,” Harrold said of the woman involved in the incident. 

Rodriguez and Harrold, both acclaimed musicians, were joined by Rev. Al Sharpton and Attorney Ben Crump at the rally. 

As a group, they demanded that the woman in the video be held criminally accountable for her actions. 

After the press conference, both parents and Rev. Sharpton took their case to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. 

“If the roles would have been reversed and you had a Black adult attacking a white teenager and falsely accuse that white teenager of taking a cell phone, we know that he would have been arrested for assault and battery,” said Crump.

The NYPD has reported that they’ve identified the woman in the video, but they have not released any other information about her. 

Her cell phone, however, was apparently left behind in an Uber and returned the same day. 

Some of those advocating on behalf of the Harrold family believe that the hotel should’ve done more to help them.

“Here are people who were your patrons, who you were supposed to protect and you were supposed to seek to find out if they were in anyway inconvenienced,” said Sharpton of the hotel. 

The hotel issued a statement, which said, in part, “In investigating the incident further, we've learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman's conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; still, more could have been done to de-escalate the dispute. No Arlo guest - or any person - should be subject to this kind of behavior. We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience.”

The NYPD said it is not investigating the incident as a bias crime. 

The mayor doesn’t seem to agree with the NYPD.

On Tuesday, in a tweet with the video from the incident, he wrote, “This is racism plain and simple.”