PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new video contradicts Sesame Place's version of a viral encounter between a worker dressed as the character Rosita and two Black children last weekend, the attorney for the mother of one of the children said Friday.
The initial video of the July 16 encounter at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Bucks County showed Rosita high-fiving a white child, but then making a “no” gesture to Jodi Brown's daughter and niece, who are Black.
Sesame Place said the gesture was meant for someone behind the 6-year-old Black girls who wanted the character to hold a child. Park performers are not permitted to hold children.
The video went viral, with nearly 800,000 views as of late Wednesday night.
Brown's attorney, B'Ivory LaMarr, said a second video has surfaced that appears to show no one behind the girls.
"Where's the person holding the child that's in between? The lady, the Caucasian woman in the purple shirt we see the last interaction with on the first video, and where's this person that’s, you know, there? They must be invisible," LaMarr told KYW Newsradio.
"We don't see anyone that's behind them. We don't see anybody on the side of them,” he added. “We have still shots of that actual video, where you can actually see there's no one."
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LaMarr released the video to TMZ Friday. He said it throws the park's version of the incident into question. While it provides a new angle, it’s shot from across the street, and it’s tough to clearly make out the full scene.
LaMarr said Brown, who lives in Brooklyn, wants the employee in the Rosita costume fired.
Sesame Place didn't respond to a request for comment Friday. In a previous statement, the park called the incident "unacceptable," said workers would receive equity training, and apologized to the Brown family.
"Those apologies aren't well received when we have this type of contradictory evidence," LaMarr said.
LaMarr said he doesn't believe this was an isolated incident.
"I literally probably have received over 100 calls from people in the Philadelphia area, in addition to people all across the country who have experienced similar conduct."