Sheriff claims deputies didn’t search lacrosse team’s private items, body camera shows in any other case

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

WTOC reviews 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 site visitors violation with the Delaware State Lacrosse crew on board. Deputies searched the belongings of the student-athletes, including suitcases with drug-sniffing dogs.

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

The group was returning home from a sport in Florida and touring by a contracted bus, in response to Allen.

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman held a information conference in regards to the incident but took no questions. He claimed that no personal items on the bus were searched.

Body digital camera video obtained by WTOC, nevertheless, clearly confirmed the deputies going by the students’ bags and even remedy.

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

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

A participant on the bus requested: “How did we go from being in the mistaken lane to going by means of our baggage?”

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

Nothing unlawful was discovered in 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 following:

“We don't intend to let this or any other incident prefer it go idly by. We are ready to go wherever the evidence leads us. We have video. We've allies. Perhaps extra significantly, we've got the braveness of our convictions.”

Allen concluded his assertion by writing, “We will never be bullied into believing anything apart from what we are: Individuals, learners, academics, builders—useful and honorable people able to soar.”

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