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Very Real

UPDATE: Airbnb Owner Says Bob Marley's Granddaughter And Friends Were Not ‘Friendly’

Marie Rodriguez thinks the situation could have been avoided if the group had “simply smiled” at her neighbor.

By Sharon Lynn Pruitt

Bob Marley’s granddaughter Donisha Prendergast plans to sue the Rialto, California police department after she and her friends were allegedly racially profiled by the neighbor of the Airbnb they were checking out of. The owner of the home has now spoken out, seemingly in neighbor’s defense.

According to an officer on the scene, the neighbor who called the police reported seeing “three black people stealing stuff,” CNN reports. Before cops allowed them to leave, Prendergast and two of her friends, both of whom are also black women, had to prove their story. The women called the owner of the home so that she could verify to police that they were not burglars but renters, as seen in the screenshots above. The homeowner, Marie Rodriguez, is now placing at least some of the blame on Prendergast and her friends, CBS News reports.

“Strange vehicle, strange people, in a suburban neighborhood, and they're not friendly. She called the police, and I don't blame her,” Rodriguez said.

Interim police chief Mark Kling criticized social media response to the incident, commenting, “Social media is a real challenge to a lot of police departments. And it’s because of the inaccurate information that just is like lighting a wildfire.”

Rodriguez claimed that the Prendergast and her friends could have avoided being questioned by police if they had not been “unkind” to the neighbor who ended up making the 911 call, the Huffington Post reports.

“If the kids had simply smiled at (my neighbor) and waved back and acknowledged her and said, ‘We’re just Airbnb guests checking out,’ none of this would have ever happened,” she said. “But instead, they were rude, unkind, not polite.”

Prendergast, a filmmaker, is 33 years old. Kids?

(Photo: Screenshot via Instagram)