Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse team’s personal objects, body camera reveals in any other case

LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC/Grey News) - An incident that concerned gamers from a college’s lacrosse workforce and deputies in Georgia remains underneath investigation.

WTOC experiences Delaware State College President Tony Allen released a press release on Monday responding to the incident that reportedly happened on April 20 in Liberty County.

Allen wrote Georgia regulation enforcement stopped a bus for a minor site visitors violation with the Delaware State Lacrosse workforce on board. Deputies searched the belongings of the student-athletes, together with suitcases with drug-sniffing canines.

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

The crew was returning dwelling from a recreation in Florida and touring by a contracted bus, based on Allen.

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman held a information convention about the incident however took no questions. He claimed that no private gadgets on the bus have been searched.

Body camera video obtained by WTOC, nonetheless, clearly showed the deputies going by means of the scholars’ luggage and even medication.

The university president wrote in his assertion that videos taken by gamers showed regulation enforcement trying to intimidate them into confessing to possession of drugs and/or drug paraphernalia.

“They didn’t really ask us,” mentioned Sydney Anderson, a Delaware State Lacrosse Player. “They knowledgeable us of what they’re gonna do and no one questioned them...we simply allow them to rattle by way of our stuff.”

A participant on the bus asked: “How did we go from being within the flawed lane to going through our luggage?”

A deputy responded: “Well, he stopped y’all, he didn’t cease y’all for a traffic violation...he stopped the motive force for a visitors violation.”

Nothing illegal was found within the search, and Allen informed the general public that he has contacted Delaware’s governor, the Black Caucus and different state officers.

Allen wrote that everybody was incensed over the incident.

Allen additionally added the following:

“We do not intend to let this or every other incident like it move idly by. We are ready to go wherever the evidence leads us. Now we have video. We have now allies. Perhaps extra significantly, now we have the courage of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his statement by writing, “We'll never be bullied into believing anything other than what we are: Americans, learners, academics, builders—useful and honorable people able to soar.”

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