Brazilian police have said.
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(Brazil Police via AP).
“We will further review the matter, and any potential consequences for the athletes, when we return to the United States”.
Judge Kayla Blank cited a statement made by Lochte and Feigen to police where they claimed they were picked up by a cab at a gas station near Club France.
Swimmer Ryan Lochte originally claimed he had been robbed at gunpoint while with three other members of the USA swim team – James Feigen, Conger, and Bentz – a story he has since altered. The two were taken off their flight from Brazil to the US on W. The two were taken off their flight from Brazil to.
“The police came and took all the video from that night”, Alves told the DailyMail.com. Either one or all of them vandalized a gas station, which initiated a confrontation with security guards, Veloso said.
During the two weeks of the Rio Games, the sporting action has been competing for headlines against a series of muggings and armed robberies of high-profile athletes and visitors in Rio de Janeiro, including two government ministers.
The swimmers, along with University of Georgia’s Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, said the robbery happened early Sunday. Lochte left the country earlier this week.
Bentz and Conger “were heard only as witnesses”.
The two were frightened and confused as to why they had been taken off their flight and exactly what they were being ordered to do by different authorities, Riera said. “They did not make any untruthful testimony”. A decision on his departure was pending.
“In theory, one or all of them might be charged for false communication of a crime and for damaging private assets, the gas station”, Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso said yesterday.
Ryan Lochte had already left, and James Feigen remains in Brazil.
Three US consular officials and a Brazilian attorney rushed to meet Conger and Bentz at the airport and told them to keep their mouths shut for now, according to Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo. The story has since unraveled, with police alleging the group vandalized a service station restroom.
The video shows one of the swimmers pulling a sign off of a wall and dropping it onto the ground.
He had insisted the swimmer had nothing to gain by making the story up.
After a few minutes, the swimmers stand up and appear to exchange something – perhaps cash, as police said – with one of the men.
Angry Brazilians have taken to social media to blast the American swimmers, and local journalist Caroline Torres said the scandal had further tarnished the city of Rio. Veloso said the guards did not use excessive force and would have been justified in drawing their weapons because the athletes “were conducting themselves in a violent way”.
A station employee called police, and the guards and employees tried to get the swimmers and the taxi driver to stay until authorities arrived, some even offering to help interpret between English and Portuguese, Veloso said.
The USOC also said yesterday that Feigen, the only one of the swimmers left in Brazil, had also revised his statement to Brazilian authorities.
GloboNews reported that police were recommending prosecutors charge Lochte and Feigen with falsely reporting a crime. Earlier on Thursday, the Associated Press reported that Brazilian police officials do think that two security guards pointed guns at the us athletes.
The press conference had the feel of a tabloid spectacle, with TV cameramen and photographers stepping over each other to enter the theater across the street from a Rio police station.
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“They came here, they represented their country to the best of their ability. Once they were calm, the gun was lowered”. They get out of the vehicle and appear to hand over money, apparently to fix the alleged damage in the bathroom.
