Woman filmed wrongly accusing Black teen of phone theft claims she was assaulted

The woman who was seen in a viral video wrongly accusing a Black teenager of stealing her phone has claimed that she was assaulted during the altercation, despite failing to provide evidence to back up her allegations.

Over the weekend, jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold shared a video of the incident, which took place in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in New York City, to Instagram.

In the clip, the unidentified woman can be seen demanding to see the phone of Mr Harrold’s 14-year-old son, Keyon Harrold Jr, which she believed to be her stolen iPhone.

According to the Grammy award-winning musician, during the altercation, the woman also “tackled” and “scratched” him while attempting to grab his son.

The video has been met with outrage on social media, with many, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, accusing the woman of racism.

“This is racism. Plain and simple,” the mayor tweeted, adding an apology to the Harrolds.

Authorities also launched an investigation into the incident, with Ben Crump, the family's attorney, calling for the Manhattan District Attorney to bring assault and battery charges against the woman.

Despite later having her phone returned by an Uber driver, the woman disputed the accounts of the viral video in a new interview with CNN.

According to the outlet, which did not identify the woman apart from her being 22 years of age because “she said she has concerns for her safety unrelated to this incident,” the woman alleged that she was assaulted during the altercation.

However, according to CNN, it has not been able to “corroborate her account with investigators or with the hotel where the incident took place” nor did the woman provide evidence for her claims.

“After she agreed to provide evidence that could help confirm her claim that she was assaulted, she stopped responding to CNN's phone calls and text messages,” CNN said.

The outlet also reported that the woman’s account of the incident was “rambling at times” and that during the 20-minute phone conversation she provided information unrelated to the incident - which CNN has also been unable to confirm.

However, the woman did express some regret over the video when asked by the outlet about her concerns over possibly facing charges, and over her portrayal.

“Of course I worry. That's not who I am. I actually... try very hard to make sure that I am always doing the right thing,” she said, adding that she would cooperate with an investigation.

On Tuesday, the NYPD said it planned to upgrade charges against the woman after reviewing footage of the incident.

Speaking at a press briefing, Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said authorities are looking to “charge this individual with assault and maybe even look at grand larceny or maybe even attempted robbery,” according to the New York Post.

“We have a white female, we don’t have her identified yet, or her age, falsely accuse a male black, 14 years of age, for stealing her cellphone,” Harrison said. “Our perpetrator initially started a verbal argument of this accusation and then tried to attack our teenager by grabbing for his phone, grabbing his leg and trying to tackle him. Our victim didn’t suffer any injuries. But his father, who he was with, received slight injuries.”

The 26 December incident is the latest in a string of false accusations against Black people in the United States.