Central Park confrontation goes viral

Woman issuing apology after racially-charged encounter - Checkey Beckford talks to those on both sides of the incident

NEW YORK, N.Y. (KYMA, KECY/NBC News) - A confrontation in New York's Central Park goes viral after a white woman is caught on camera calling the police on a black man.

She claims the man was harrassing her and her dog, but the video tells another story. Now she's issuing an apology .

"I'm going to call the cops and tell them an African American man is threatening my life."

Those are just two of the threats thrown out by Amy Cooper during an encounter with Christian Cooper, no relation, in Central Park.

"At some point she decided that you know oh I'm going to play the race card." said Christian Cooper.

Christian, an avid bird watcher, says he started recording after telling the woman her dog needed to be leashed in an area known as "The Ramble."

"If the habitat is destroyed, we won't be able to go there to see birds or enjoy the planting." says Christian.

He says he even offered the dog a treat.

"The only way to keep the dog from eating the treat is put the dog on a leash." he explains.

That's when he says, Amy Cooper roughly grabbed the dog by the collar, told him to stop recording, and started calling police. During the call, you can hear her referring several times to being threatened by an African American man.

"There is an African American man. I am in Central Park. He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog."

Even though Christian Cooper doesn't move any closer to the woman, h er call becomes increasingly frantics.

"I'm being threatened by a man in the ramble. Please send the cops immediately."

Cooper says he kept recording because he had no intentions of being intimidated.

"I'm not going to participate in my own de-humanization. I'm not going to feed into it you know. We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where Black men are shot gunned down because of the presumption they make about them." he says.

He also says he stopped recording and walked away as soon as the woman leashed the dog.

The woman, Amy Cooper, now says she overreacted.

"It was unacceptable. You know words are just words and I can't undue what I did. But I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone… especially to that man and his family." says Amy.

She apologized, but all also claimed Cooper too was screaming. She insisted she felt threatened, and didn't know what was in the dog treats he offered.

She also said she regrets calling police.

"The police… I think of them as a protection agency… and unfortunately this has caused me to realize that so many people in this country don't have that luxury." she saids.

Franklin Templeton Investments has placed Amy Cooper on suspension while it further investigates Amy's actions on the video.