“According to Lochte, he and three teammates, including Feigen, were on their way back from a party to the Athletes” Village in a taxi early in Sunday morning when armed men pulled over the taxi and ordered them to get down on the ground. Said attorney Sergio Viegas said. Feigen said that only one of the men had guns. “We will continue to co-operate with Brazilian authorities”, Sandusky said. He wasn’t told to stay around or that [the authorities] had other questions, but we told them we were still available if they had further questions.
Advertisement
“I wouldn’t make up a story like this, nor would the others”, Lochte said, according to Lauer.
When news broke early Sunday that U.S. Olympic Swimmer Ryan Lochte had been robbed, people didn’t know what to think.
ABC News has learned that Rio police have searched the rooms of the four swimmers in the Olympic Village.
The judge ordered the passports of Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen to be seized.
Lochte and Feigen were the only ones to give accounts of the incident, and could not remember the colour of the taxi or where the alleged incident took place.
Security footage of the swimmers returning to Athletes’ Village also depicted the four joking around and looking completely unshaken by what they claim to have occurred.
The US Olympic Committee later confirmed the swimmers’ accounts.
“I’m just happy he’s safe”, the elder Lochte said. “It was an unfortunate experience for him and the other three”. “I don’t know that they knew how serious this was, and that they were about to start an worldwide incident”. Brazilian judge Keyla Blank pointed out that the athletes seemed to be unshaken and nearly jovial in the video – not the emotions one would expect from people who just survived being robbed at gunpoint. The incident happened following the last night of Olympic swimming competitions. He said he was sure Ryan had his passport or he would not have been allowed to board a plane.
A police official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that witnesses, along with the taxi driver, can not be located.
Police sources have told Reuters in recent days they have been unable to find the taxi driver allegedly involved in the incident or to corroborate any details provided by the swimmers. The robbers were armed men dressed as police officers and approached the men as they were stopped at a gas station.
NBC’s Matt Lauer said on the air Wednesday night that he had spoken on the phone with Lochte and that the swimmer “strongly denied” any implication that he and his teammates had made up the story, saying that was “absolutely not the case”.
Advertisement
“Why would anybody fabricate anything?”
