Two South Carolina sheriffs are denying claims that officers targeted a bus full of students from a historically Black university earlier this month. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright and Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller were at a joint press conference Monday where they disputed Shaw University President Paulette Dillard’s version of events of a traffic stop were wrong.
Eighteen students and two staff advisers from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, were on their way to the Center for Financial Advancement Conference in Atlanta on Oct. 5 when the bus they were on was stopped by police over a minor traffic violation in Spartanburg County, South Carolina Raleigh-Durham station WTVD reported.
According to ABC News:
Dillard claimed Spartanburg County Sheriff police dogs searched through the students’ bags.
“President Dillard said they were searched by blood-thirsty dogs. There was one dog; he was on a leash. Students were never even close to that dog,” Wright said at the news conference. “None of the students were even asked off the bus.”
Dillard claimed Spartanburg County Sheriff police dogs searched through the students’ bags.
“President Dillard said they were searched by blood-thirsty dogs. There was one dog; he was on a leash. Students were never even close to that dog,” Wright said at the news conference. “None of the students were even asked off the bus.”
“This behavior of targeting Black students is unacceptable and will not be ignored nor tolerated,” Dillard told WTVD. “Had the students been white, I doubt this detention and search would have occurred.”
Wright denied that race had any factor in the incident.
“I wish racism would die the ugly, cruel death it deserves. And if anything we are ever doing is racist, I want to know it, I want to fix it and I want to never let it happen again, but this case right here has nothing to do with racism,” Wright said.
In body camera footage from the South Carolina Sheriff’s Office, which was obtained by ABC News. The officers were seen approaching the bus, checking out the bus driver’s license and talking to the driver while a police dog sniffed luggage located underneath the vehicle.
The video shows an officer searching the driver for guns after he placed his hand in his pockets. The driver pulls out candy from his pockets while engaging in conversation with the officer, shown in the video.
Law enforcement officials issued the bus driver a written warning, the video shows.
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