Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse workforce’s private objects, body camera exhibits otherwise

LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC/Grey Information) - An incident that concerned players from a university’s lacrosse staff and deputies in Georgia stays beneath investigation.

WTOC reviews Delaware State University President Tony Allen released an announcement on Monday responding to the incident that reportedly happened on April 20 in Liberty County.

Allen wrote Georgia legislation 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, including suitcases with drug-sniffing canine.

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

The group was returning home from a recreation in Florida and traveling by a contracted bus, according to Allen.

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

Body digicam video obtained by WTOC, nonetheless, clearly confirmed the deputies going by means of the scholars’ bags and even remedy.

The university president wrote in his assertion that videos taken by gamers confirmed regulation enforcement trying to intimidate them into confessing to possession of medicine 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 nobody questioned them...we just allow them to rattle by way of our stuff.”

A participant on the bus requested: “How did we go from being within the wrong lane to going via our bags?”

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

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

Allen wrote that everybody was incensed over the incident.

Allen additionally added the next:

“We don't intend to let this or some other incident like it pass idly by. We're prepared to go wherever the evidence leads us. We've video. We have allies. Perhaps extra significantly, we've got the courage of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his assertion by writing, “We are going to never be bullied into believing anything aside from what we're: Individuals, learners, teachers, builders—useful and honorable folks able to soar.”

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