The police official said officers grew suspicious when video showed the swimmers returning to the athletes village wearing watches, which would have likely been taken in a robbery.
Advertisement
The United States Olympic Committee has apologised for the conduct of four USA swimmers involved in an incident at a petrol station in Rio.
On Monday, Lochte called it a robbery.
“There was a uniformed person with a gun who forced them to hand over their money”, Ostrow told the newspaper. The gas station owners had not pressed charges over the vandalism as of Thursday.
The United States Olympic Committee has issued an apology for the incident.
“We apologize to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence”, the U.S. Olympic Committee said. The fourth swimmer, Jimmy Feigen, made a deal with a judge to make a $10,800 payment and be allowed to leave the country later Friday, his lawyer said.
Bentz and Conger flew out of Brazil Thursday night after visiting a police station earlier in the day to revise their statements.
They’re now on their way home, according to the USOC.
The police account came in direct contrast to claims from Lochte’s attorney earlier in the week.
On Sunday, Lochte had told NBC that the taxi he was traveling in with his three team mates was flagged down by robbers posing as police and they held a gun to his head during a robbery.
In a Tweet, the Olympic gold medalist did not go into details about what happened early Sunday morning at a Rio gas station.
Police concluded that the only crimes committed were by Lochte and his compatriots. At one point, Lochte stands and appears to argue with the guards but is made to sit down again.
“The surveillance tapes show that there was no violence against the athletes at the gas station”, Veloso said.
“In theory, they could end up facing charges of falsely reporting a crime and damage to property”, he said. Police only heard about the alleged crime and started investigating because it was being talked about on social media, Veloso said. Veloso said the swimmers broke a door, a soap dispenser and a mirror. “The only person that continues to say there was a robbery is [Lochte]”, Velso said after the press conference.
Lochte and three USA swimmers said they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday, with Lochte saying their cab was pulled over by men impersonating police officers.
Andrada said 2.5 percent of the mentions on the @Rio2016 Twitter account since the beginning of the games have been about the Lochte situation. He emphasized, however, that the ongoing investigation still had not conclusively assigned blame.
The four were in a taxi, a gun was brandished and money was exchanged. But a police source later told Reuters that this had not yet happened.
“The guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down, ‘” Lochte recounted. I waited to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was clear that my teammates would be arriving home safely.
Us Weekly has reached out to Lochte and Feigen for comment.
The robbery that was or wasn’t has become the biggest spectacle outside of the Olympic venues in Rio, casting a shadow over American Olympians amid an otherwise remarkable run at the Summer Games.
The footage shows a man in the act of urinating in a side alley at the gas station and being confronted by gas station staff.
Advertisement
He says his client, who won his sixth Olympic gold medal in the pool in Rio, has been cooperative with authorities and has not been asked again for assistance. “I was like, ‘We didn’t do anything wrong'”.
