Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse team’s private gadgets, physique camera reveals otherwise

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

WTOC reports Delaware State University President Tony Allen released an announcement 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 group on board. Deputies searched the belongings of the student-athletes, together with suitcases with drug-sniffing dogs.

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

The group was returning residence from a recreation in Florida and traveling by a contracted bus, in keeping with Allen.

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman held a information convention in regards to the incident but took no questions. He claimed that no private objects on the bus have been searched.

Body digicam video obtained by WTOC, however, clearly showed the deputies going by way of the scholars’ luggage and even remedy.

The university president wrote in his assertion that videos taken by players confirmed regulation enforcement attempting to intimidate them into confessing to possession of medication and/or drug paraphernalia.

“They didn’t really ask us,” stated Sydney Anderson, a Delaware State Lacrosse Player. “They knowledgeable us of what they’re gonna do and nobody questioned them...we simply allow them to rattle by way of our stuff.”

A participant on the bus requested: “How did we go from being in the incorrect lane to going through our luggage?”

A deputy responded: “Well, he stopped y’all, he didn’t stop y’all for a site visitors violation...he stopped the driving force for a traffic 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 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 any other incident like it move idly by. We are ready to go wherever the evidence leads us. Now we have video. We have allies. Perhaps extra considerably, we've got the braveness of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his statement by writing, “We'll by no means be bullied into believing anything aside from what we're: Americans, learners, academics, builders—useful and honorable individuals ready to soar.”

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