PROVO, Utah — Days after a Brigham Young University fan was banned for allegedly directing racist slurs at an opposing volleyball player, the school says it has no evidence that the man actually said the words.
During Friday's game at Smith Fieldhouse, Duke officials reported that a fan was harassing Blue Devils volleyball player Rachel Richardson while she was on the court. A day later, BYU issued a statement claiming that it had banned the fan who was sitting in the student section during the game, but was not a student at the school.
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"It wasn’t until after the game that an individual was identified by Duke who they believed were uttering the slurs and exhibiting problematic behaviors. That is the individual who has been banned," said BYU Associate Athletic Director Jon McBride on Sunday.
However, McBride told FOX 13 News on Wednesday that while Duke identified the person as using the slurs, "we have been unable to find any evidence of that person using slurs in the match."
Campus police also told the Salt Lake Tribune that reviews of surveillance footage don't show the unidentified man shouting anything at the Richardson.
“When we watched the video, we did not observe that behavior from him,” said BYU Police Lt. George Besendorfer.
Word of the incident began over the weekend when Richardson's godmother tweeted about the slurs, saying the player was called the N-word every time she served, and "was threatened by a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus."
But according to the police report filed Saturday, when talking to police, the man said he only approached Richardson because he thought it was a friend of is who plays for BYU. The BYU player later saw the man and "said she was happy to see him and she thanked him for his support," the report said.
The man also claimed he only yelled at the Duke players that they shouldn't hit the ball into the net and denied making any slurs.
In the police report, an officer also acknowledged the lack of footage showing the man making any derogatory comments.
Because of the lack of evidence, the school is asking anyone who has photo or video of the man making racial slurs to let officials know and to assist in the investigation.
