Authorities are still seeking answers about how they allegedly were robbed Sunday morning.
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Sergio Riera, an attorney for Conger and Bentz, said the swimmers were frightened and confused as to why they had been taken off their flight and over what they were being ordered to do by different authorities. They then began an investigation that included interviews of the swimmers, who admitted that details of the night were hazy because they had been drinking. Police have found little evidence to support their accounts.
Two Olympic swimmers were taken off their flight from Brazil to the US on Wednesday by local authorities amid an investigation into a reported robbery targeting Ryan Lochte and his teammates. He is in the US while fellow Olympian Jimmy Feigen is still in Brazil cooperating with the investigation.
As far as Feigen, Sandusky stated, “James Feigen is also communicating with local authorities and intends to make further statements regarding the incident on Thursday as well”. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance”.
Television images showed U.S. Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger walking into a police office at the airport to give testimony. When it was discovered that the door was locked, several of the swimmers broke in to the facility before an armed guard approached them. Using a customer to translate, the manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door.
Lochte successfully left Rio and is back in the United States, while Conger and Bentz were pulled from their flights which were set to leave Brazil on Wednesday. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground – they got down on the ground”.
(AP Photo/Mauro Pimentel). American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz, left, and Jack Conger, center, leave the police station at Rio International airport early Thursday Aug. 18, 2016.
Representatives from the US consulate arrived at the airport shortly after the swimmers were held.
“I think he feels it was more of a traumatic mischaracterization”, said Lauer. “But I’m safe. Everything’s fine”.
The 32-year-old Lochte vehemently denied any form of cover up due to the inconsistencies with his story, claiming he and his teammates would not have made this up, NBC reported. He did note one difference in Lochte’s story, as the swimmer told him the gun had not been put to his head but “pointed in his general direction”. The star swimmer now says that the taxi the athletes were riding in was not pulled over by men with a badge, but they were instead robbed after stopping at a gas station.
Lochte said Wednesday they were at a gas station and got back in the taxi, the taxi driver did not move, and it was then that two robbers with guns and badges approached the auto and ordered the swimmers out of the vehicle and onto the ground, Lauer said.
But police said the swimmers were intoxicated, giving accounts full of murky details and in conflict with one another.
Local television has replayed security video – obtained by a British newspaper – of the swimmers returning to the village shortly before 7 a.m. that morning.
Bentz and Conger were pulled off their flight Wednesday night. No apologies from him or other athletes are needed. I don’t know what all the controversy is. “These types of things have happened with other people … but they don’t take half the interest they do with Ryan”.
Lochte has been the only one of the four to speak publicly about the alleged robbery.
“They arrived with their psychological and physical integrity unshaken”, Judge Keyla Blank wrote in her opinion.
On Wednesday, a Rio judge ordered that police confiscate the passports of Lochte and Feigen.
Ryan Lochte isn’t going back to Brazil. It said the U.S. committee had initially said otherwise, causing the confusion. “We will continue to cooperate with Brazilian authorities”.
State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the USA government is aware of the situation.
“Why would anybody fabricate anything?” Oh, and at first, Ryan said his vehicle was side-swiped when this all went down, but that changed, too – later, he said the situation just happened in the gas station parking lot.
Lochte did not repeat part of his story that their taxi was pulled over by the robbers, Lauer said.
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The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation. They went to the toilet and damaged it pretty badly. He pointed his gun at them and insisted they pay for the damage. Ryan is the victim here.
