Brazil Police: Swimmers Were Vandals, Not Robbery Victims

Marilia Brocchetto, Flora Charner, Joshua Berlinger, Angela Dewan
CNN

RIO DE JANEIRO — (CNN) U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte was confrontational with security guards after they stopped him and three other American swimmers from vandalizing a gas station because he was “very angry because he was intoxicated,” said Fernando Veloso, chief of civil police in Rio de Janeiro.

A firearm was pointed at the American swimmers by one of the security guards at a vandalized gas station in order to control them, Brazilian police said. It is not being deemed an excessive use of force.

Civil Police chief Fernando Veloso says “there was no robbery” in Rio de Janeiro the way the US swimmers have described. One or more of the four vandalized a gas station, said Veloso.

Surveillance videos show that there was no violence or robbery committed against the four American Olympic swimmers who Brazilian police say vandalized a Rio gas station.

One of the American Olympic swimmers confirmed the account that the surveillance video showed that the swimmers — Ryan Lochte, Rockville, Md. native Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and James Feigen — were committing acts of vandalism at a gas station when confronted by security guards, Brazilian police said.

Civil police in Rio de Janeiro say that American Olympic swimmer James Feigen has not been interviewed. Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger are giving their statements to police now.