“The athletes lied to us about their story”, a top Rio police official told Reuters on Thursday, declining to be identified because the matter was still under investigation.
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According to various media reports including CNN, police removedCongerand fellow swimmer Gunnar Bentz from an airplane as they attempted to return to the U.S. The whereabouts of a third athlete – former University of Texas standout Jimmy Feigen – were unknown, although it’s believed he’s still in Rio.
The official says a few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it. Then the guy out his gun, was engaged, was pointed at my forehead and said “get down”.
One official told the New York Times the swimmers told “one lie after another”. He now says the taxi wasn’t pulled over by men with a badge but rather the athletes were robbed after stopping at a gas station, NBC reported. Earlier this week, it was reported that Ryan Lochte, along with three other US swimmers, were robbed at gunpoint while returning home from a party in Rio.
The report caused the Olympic authorities huge embarrassment, highlighting security worries at an Olympics where Brazil has deployed 85 000 police and soldiers – double the number used in the 2012 London Games. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed”, Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso said during an afternoon news conference.
Lochte’s lawyer, agent and father did not immediately return messages seeking comment from the AP. Feigen also is in Brazil and is cooperating with authorities, NBC reported Thursday morning. A spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed the two men were taken from their flight.
The U.S. Olympic Committee said police went to the athletes village to try to collect the passports, but the swim team had already moved out.
“Everybody saw and the story turned around”. “The four athletes are safe and work with the authorities”, he said. I refused, I was like we didn’t do anything wrong, so – I’m not getting down on the ground.
American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz, center left, and Jack Conger, center right, leave the police station at Rio International airport early Thursday Aug. 18, 2016.
Veloso stressed that the investigation was continuing and that an attorney representing Feigen was making arrangements to bring him to police for an interview.
The action comes amid increasing tension between Brazilian authorities and the American swimmers over the ever-changing account of the robbery.
The actual story (at the moment, which could change any moment) is the swimmers damaged a gas station bathroom door early Sunday morning after being denied entry. The swimmers said they had been intoxicated and could not remember what type and color of taxi they rode, where the incident happened or what time the events occurred, police said. The office of Judge Keyla Blanc, who ordered the passports seized, said there were discrepancies in the statements by the swimmers.
However, details quickly began to shift, and by Wednesday night, Lochte was telling Matt Lauer that in fact no one had pointed a gun at his head, but had waved it in his “general directon”.
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On Sunday, Lochte told USA media the robbers had carried police badges when they pulled the taxi over.
