| Credit: Ventura County Sheriff s Department
Miya Ponsetto, the California woman facing criminal charges in New York City for allegedly attacking a Black teen after falsely accusing him of theft, said racial profiling couldn t have stoked her alleged actions, as she, herself, is a woman of color.
CBS This Morning host Gayle King hours before her arrest, Ponsetto said she is Puerto Rican, and therefore incapable of racism. I wasn t racial profiling whatsoever, Ponsetto told King. I am Puerto Rican. I m like, a woman of color. I m Italian, Greek, Puerto Rican.
Ponsetto was detained Thursday outside her residence in Piru, California.
On December 26, Grammy-winning musician Keyon Harrold and his 14-year-old son were enjoying a stay at New York’s Arlo Hotel. Things went south after they went downstairs for breakfast and Harrold’s son was accused of stealing a woman’s phone. According to Harrold, the woman was no longer a guest at the hotel and it was later discovered that she had left her phone in an Uber.
The artist believes that the claim was made against his son because he is Black. The woman has been described as white by police.
“I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home,” Harrold wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “I typically try to keep things positive, but nothing about this video is positive.” He posted video of the incident, which included the 22-year-old woman demanding to see the teen’s phone as proof that it was not hers.