Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse team’s personal gadgets, physique digicam exhibits otherwise

LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC/Gray News) - An incident that involved gamers from a university’s lacrosse group and deputies in Georgia stays beneath investigation.

WTOC stories Delaware State University President Tony Allen launched a statement on Monday responding to the incident that reportedly occurred on April 20 in Liberty County.

Allen wrote Georgia law enforcement stopped a bus for a minor traffic violation with the Delaware State Lacrosse crew on board. Deputies searched the belongings of the student-athletes, including suitcases with drug-sniffing canines.

“100% you can’t be in that left lane at all,” said a Liberty County Sheriff’s Deputy.

The workforce was returning house from a recreation in Florida and traveling by a contracted bus, in line with Allen.

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman held a news conference concerning the incident however took no questions. He claimed that no personal gadgets on the bus have been searched.

Body digicam video obtained by WTOC, nonetheless, clearly showed the deputies going by way of the scholars’ bags and even treatment.

The college president wrote in his statement that movies taken by gamers showed regulation enforcement making an attempt to intimidate them into confessing to possession of medication and/or drug paraphernalia.

“They didn’t actually ask us,” mentioned Sydney Anderson, a Delaware State Lacrosse Participant. “They informed us of what they’re gonna do and nobody questioned them...we simply allow them to rattle through our stuff.”

A player on the bus asked: “How did we go from being within the wrong lane to going by our baggage?”

A deputy responded: “Properly, he stopped y’all, he didn’t stop y’all for a traffic violation...he stopped the driving force for a site visitors violation.”

Nothing illegal was discovered within the search, and Allen knowledgeable the public that he has contacted Delaware’s governor, the Black Caucus and other state officers.

Allen wrote that everyone was incensed over the incident.

Allen additionally added the following:

“We don't intend to let this or another incident like it cross idly by. We are prepared to go wherever the proof leads us. Now we have video. Now we have allies. Maybe extra significantly, we have the braveness of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his assertion by writing, “We will by no means be bullied into believing something other than what we're: People, learners, lecturers, builders—useful and honorable folks able to soar.”

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