Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse crew’s private objects, physique digital camera exhibits in any other case

LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC/Gray Information) - An incident that involved players from a university’s lacrosse team and deputies in Georgia remains beneath investigation.

WTOC studies Delaware State College President Tony Allen launched a statement 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 staff 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 in any respect,” stated a Liberty County Sheriff’s Deputy.

The crew was returning home from a sport in Florida and touring by a contracted bus, in line with Allen.

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

Physique camera video obtained by WTOC, however, clearly showed the deputies going via the students’ luggage and even medication.

The college president wrote in his statement that videos taken by gamers showed law enforcement attempting 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 means of our stuff.”

A player on the bus requested: “How did we go from being in the flawed lane to going by way of our luggage?”

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

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

Allen wrote that everybody was incensed over the incident.

Allen also added the next:

“We don't intend to let this or any other incident like it cross idly by. We're prepared to go wherever the evidence leads us. Now we have video. We now have allies. Perhaps extra considerably, we have the braveness of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his assertion by writing, “We are going to by no means be bullied into believing anything aside from what we are: Americans, learners, lecturers, builders—useful and honorable folks ready to soar.”

Copyright 2022 WTOC through Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.