This is the moment a black child sobbed with anguish when she and her grieving white mother were pulled aside after getting off a Southwes...
This is the moment a black child sobbed with anguish when she and her grieving white mother were pulled aside after getting off a Southwest flight after being flagged up for human trafficking.
Moira MacCarthy 10, could be heard crying with fright after she and her mother, Mary MacCarthy, 42, were confronted by a Southwest staffer at Denver International Airport on October 22, with the pair taking the flight after MacCarthy's brother died suddenly the night before.
MacCarthy, who is a single mom, works in tech and lives in LA, has exclusively shared the video with DailyMail.com. She says she was left shaken by the accusation and ensuing confrontation, and has now retained an attorney.
The clip shows a Southwest staffer and two airport cops explain why MacCarthy and her biological daughter have been pulled aside, with the shocked mom pulling out her phone to film the incident after explaining that she is too shaken by the incident to take notes.
'It's okay sweetheart,' the concerned mother can be heard saying in the three-minute video as her daughter repeatedly sobs with fear after being confronted by the two armed officers and the Southwest rep.
The concerned mom could also be heard saying: 'I have a daughter, who has unfortunately already been traumatized by police in her life.'
Mary MacCarthy and her ten-year-old biracial daughter, Moira, were stopped by armed police officers after disembarking a flight at a Denver airport last month, after a flight attendant accused the parent of trafficking the youth
During the encounter, MacCarthy was told by the officers that another Southwest Airlines employee reported the single mom of 'suspicious behavior' - with a police report filed after the incident indicating that both the airline and police suspected the single mom of 'trafficking' the child.
Maddened by such a insinuation, MacCarthy slammed both the airline and the Denver Police Department, saying the anonymous staffer's suspicion was a 'racist assumption about a mixed-race family.'
'The day of the incident, it was clear to me that my family was racially profiled,' MacCarthy told DailyMail.com in an emotional interview.
'The airline and police need to be held accountable. They accosted us.'
The Southwest staffer, a flight attendant whose identify has not been released, flagged the pair for 'suspicious behavior' during a flight from San Jose to Denver. The mother and daughter had been traveling from their home in Los Angeles to see family in Denver after the sudden death of MacCarthy's older brother
The Southwest staffer, a flight attendant whose identify has not been released, flagged the pair for 'suspicious behavior' during a flight from San Jose to the Mile-High City, which MacCarthy and her daughter were visiting to be with family after the death of her older brother the night before.
'We booked a flight late last night for the three of us because my brother, who’s 46, went to the hospital and died 20 minutes later,' the overwrought mother explains in the clip, her voice shaking with emotion.
'He was like a father to her,' she adds, explaining to the officers that she's a single mother.
According to the police report, the attendant told police she was suspicious due to the fact that the mother-daughter duo were the last to board the plane - and because MacCarthy asked other passengers to move seats so she could sit next to her daughter.
The attendant also told officers that the pair did not speak to each other once during the entire flight, the report states.
According to the police report, the attendant told police she was suspicious due to the fact that the mother-daughter duo were the last to board the plane - and because MacCarthy asked other passengers to move seats so she could sit next to her daughter
The attendant also told officers that the pair did not speak to each other once during the entire flight, the report states
Upon the pair's arrival at Denver International, before they even made their way through the jet bridge, the two found themselves confronted by two armed Denver police officers - as well as a Southwest employee.
MacCarthy said that she thought the officers were there to tell her about another death in her family, but realized that was not the case when the two lawmen started talking to MacCarthy and her daughter, Moira, separately.
According to the police report and MacCarthy's own account, the officers sought to question the two after the Southwest Airlines employee deemed the duo suspicious, and reported MacCarthy as a potential human trafficker to her supervisors.
'The officer told me, "We’re talking to you because you were reported to the pilot for suspicious behavior,"' MacCarthy revealed to DailyMail.com on Thursday.
'I immediately knew what was going on.'
The police report states that MacCarthy then explained to the officers that the pair were grieving and traveling to see family, and that young Moira, who cried throughout the encounter, was indeed her daughter.
According to the police report and MacCarthy's own account, the officers sought to question the two after the Southwest Airlines employee deemed the duo suspicious, and reported MacCarthy as a potential human trafficker to her supervisors
The police report states that MacCarthy then explained to the officers that the pair were grieving and traveling to see family, and that ten-year-old Moira, who cried throughout the encounter, was indeed her daughter
The mom also told the lawmen that they boarded the plane last because they were assigned to the last boarding group by the airline, having booked their seats at the 11th hour.
She also defended her decision to ask fellow plane-goers if they minded swapping seats, telling the officers that the passengers did not mind situating elsewhere so that she could sit with her daughter during the two-plus-hour flight.
MacCarthy then clarified that she and her daughter did not speak much during the flight because she was trying to catch up sleep after hearing of her brother's death the night before - and added that her daughter was listening to an audiobook.
After hearing from both MacCarthy and her daughter, the officers deemed the pair to not be a threat, and let the two go on their way.
After the incident, the peeved parent told the Post: 'This is the type of situation that mixed-race families and families of color face all the time while traveling.'
MacCarthy further clarified to the paper that she was not maddened by the way officers and the Southwest employee treated her after she and her daughter exited the plan, but at the Southwest flight attendant who reported her without so much as a word.
Moira, 10, is biracial, while her mother is white. 'The whole thing is based on what I believe to be a racist assumption about a mixed-race family,' MacCarthy said after the October 22 incident
'The whole thing is based on what I believe to be a racist assumption about a mixed-race family,' MacCarthy said.
However, after receiving a call from the Denver Police Department's Human Trafficking Unit on November 1, ten days after the incident, and after she saw the department's police report concerning the incident and saw the trafficking allegations, she grew even more irate over the fact the police and airline did not share their real suspicions during the initial encounter.
According to MacCarthy, the police told her that she and her daughter had been reported for 'suspicious behavior' not while on the plane, but 'prior to boarding in San Jose' and that they had 'boarded the flight suspiciously late.'
However, neither of these statements appear anywhere in the 23-page police report.
When asked for comment on the incident by DailyMail.com, Southwest spokesperson Chris Mainz offered this statement:
'We were disheartened to learn of this mother’s account when traveling with her daughter.
'We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the Customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us.
'Our Employees undergo robust training on Human Trafficking.
'Above all, Southwest Airlines prides itself on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for the millions of Customers who travel with us each year.'
The airline announced in 2019 it would provide online training to all of its employees on how to identify human trafficking and what steps to take if trafficking is suspected.
With that said, the incident at the airport, MacCarthy says, made an already difficult day even tougher for ten-year-old Moira.
'It was the worst day of my daughter's life,' MacCarthy told DailyMail.com Thursday.
While it is not clear whether MacCarthy will sue the airline or not, the outraged mother says she wants written apology from the airline, as well as immediate reimbursement of the full price of their tickets.
She is also seeking additional compensation to account for 'the trauma imposed on an innocent family, and especially on a grieving ten year old black girl.'
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