Twitter/Greg Conn
Tamara Harrian is the Arizona woman who is accused of confronting a Native American woman in a racist manner inside a Phoenix, Arizona, gas station. Harrian, 61, is married to lawyer Robert Harrian and works as the operations manager at her husband’s Glendale-based law firm, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn profile. The firm specializes in divorce proceedings.
The video showing Tamara Harrian was recorded on June 6. The woman is shown demanding help inside the gas station as she says that the outside pump is not working. The man recording the video says Harrian told a woman who was being served at the counter to “go back to her country.” This is not shown in the video. In the video, Harrian tells the clerk not to serve the woman. The other woman squares up to Harrian. After Harrian puts her hands on the other woman, the other woman slaps Harrian in the face. Heavy has reached out to Harrian for comment on the video.
Multiple Twitter users have labeled Harrian as a “Karen,” a reference to the popular meme. According to The Guardian’s Elle Hunt, “Karen is a middle-aged white woman with an asymmetrical bob asking to speak to the manager, who happens to be as entitled as she is ignorant.” The piece linked the term to a reference in the 2004 movie Mean Girls. According to Know Your Meme, “Karen” was added as an extension to the “‘Can I Speak to the Manager’ Haircut” page in 2019. The site’s editor told The Guardian that memes of that ilk have been around since 2014 and were born out of Black Twitter.
The Man Who Recorded the Video Said Harrian Was Telling People Inside the Store That She Was the Manager
During the video, Harrian identifies herself as the manager of the store. TMZ reports, citing the owners of the store, that Harrian is not employed there and that she is not welcome at any of the stores in the future. The incident occurred at a Superpumper station on North 7th Street and East Greenway Parkway in the northern part of Phoenix, according to 12 News.
The man who recorded Harrian, Greg Conn, told Fox Phoenix, “[Harrian] was saying that she owned the place, that she was a manager there, but I have spoken with the CEO of Superpumper — he’s saying that is not the case. She is not affiliated with any of the stores nationwide.” Fox Phoenix has identified the other woman in the video as Karina Rodrigez.
In posting the video on his Facebook page, Conn described the scene, saying:
I was checking out and this lady comes into the store all flustered yelling at the clerk to get another clerk to help because the line was getting long and her pump wasn’t working. Another clerk came out and she said to the young lady in the video, she can go checkout in an authoritative manner.
The young lady said “thank you but I don’t need your assistance”. She was clearly annoyed with the lady like everyone else in the store. At this time the lady told the clerk not to serve her, told her she can leave, and go back to her country. That’s when I took out my phone, and the rest is here in the video.
Harrian Is the Leader of the Women’s Ministry at Her Church
LinkedIn/Tamara Harrian
A cached version of Robert Harrian’s biography on his firm’s website says that he has been married to his wife “for more than 20 years.” Harrian’s maiden name was Hockamier. The profile says that the couple enjoys traveling and playing golf together. The couple is religious, with Robert Harrian serving as a deacon and Harrian acting as a “leader in the Women’s Ministry.” Harrian’s brother is a Christian author and songwriter.
The law firm’s Google Review page has been hijacked by people who viewed the gas station video. The firm’s average review is one out of five stars. The two reviews from prior to June 2020 are both negative. One person said that he was charged two times the national average for a Qualified Domestic Relations Order. That person described the firm as being “very shady” in their practice.
According to Harrian’s now-deleted LinkedIn page, she is the operations manager at the Harrian Law Firm. Harrian is a graduate of Glendale Community College and Northern Arizona University, where she studied management. Robert Harrian studied at the University College Law School in London, England, and received his Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University. Robert Harrian has served on the Glendale Board of Adjustment and the Glendale Planning and Zoning Commission. He is a Navy veteran who was born in Bradford, New York.
Tamara Harrian’s Husband Says That She Suffers From a Mental Illness
Facebook/Karina RodrigezKarina Rodrigez, the woman who hit Tamara Harrian, pictured on her Facebook page in October 2019.
In an interview with NBC Phoenix, Robert Harrian said that his wife suffers from a mental illness. During the interview, he apologized on behalf of his wife. Robert Harrian also said that his wife has not been diagnosed and that he has been unable to have her committed. He said:
Horrible things were said and a lot of those horrible things came from my wife. It came from a spot of an illness. This is your spouse you have known and loved for 30 years and she is starting to slip away. And you are trying to get her help but you can’t get her help because she doesn’t think there is anything wrong with her.
Karina Rodrigez said in a Spanish-language interview with Telemundo, via NBC Phoenix, “My heart hurts. When I left I cried a lot, it makes me very sad that this is happening. She came very authoritatively as if she were status in which we will have to serve her, a level that we did not have.”
According to her Facebook page, Rodrigez attended cosmetology school and the Bryman School of Medical Assisting. She is a resident of Phoenix, Arizona.
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