San Jose woman arrested after video accusing father of trafficking his 6-year-old daughter goes viral
A San Jose woman who went viral after accusing a father of sex-trafficking his own 6-year-old daughter because he is a man of color and the girl appears white has been arrested on suspicion of stalking and hate crimes, police said.The woman, 47, was arrested Thursday after San Jose police investigated a series of incidents involving her, including the confrontation with the father and his daughter in the city’s Almaden neighborhood on September 6. Investigators said she had approached the pair multiple times and made discriminatory remarks.The original encounter was captured on video by the father who posted it on TikTok. In the footage, the woman can be heard telling him she believed he was trafficking the child because the girl looked white while he was a “man of color.”“I believe you’re either buying or selling or trafficking this child,” she said in the video.The woman also claimed she worked with federal authorities. “I’m recording you too,” she told the father before saying she was checking that he was not sex-trafficking the girl because she allegedly did not look like his child.The father had described himself online as “brown” and said his daughter is half-white. The incident happened while he was walking with the girl near a small park in the Almaden neighborhood.
Woman allegedly involved in other incidents
The September 6 confrontation was not the only incident that drew police attention.According to police, investigators learned during their inquiry that the woman was allegedly responsible for a series of other incidents. One occurred at a South San Jose high school three days after the confrontation with the father and daughter.Police said they used automated license plate reader technology to identify the woman’s vehicle and then conducted a broader investigation through the San Jose Police Department’s assaults unit.She was ultimately booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of stalking, hate crimes and other offences.The arrest came just days after the video of the confrontation went viral, drawing widespread criticism over the woman’s decision to infer that the child was being trafficked based on the different appearances of the father and daughter.The father, who has asked to remain anonymous, told KRON he was walking while his daughter was a little ahead of him riding her bike. As the daughter stopped to wait for him to catch up, he said the woman, who they had never seen before, stopped her car near the daughter for a few seconds and then drove up to him. “Are you buying or selling today?” she asked him.“I was already uncomfortable because she had approached my daughter, so I was taken aback,” the father said. “She asked me the same question again and then drove away, turning onto another neighborhood street.”The father headed in the other direction with his daughter after the hateful comments but said that the woman came around from behind them. “She slowed down and said something to the effect of asking whether I was even legal in the country,” he said.
