There is still an ongoing investigation into the racist slurs yelled at a Duke volleyball player last week. However, campus police is having a hard time seeing anything that appears out of the ordinary from the fan who was fingered as the person who yelled the slurs.
BYU Police Lt. George Besendorfer said Tuesday that based on an initial review of surveillance footage of the crowd, the individual who was banned wasn’t shouting anything while the Duke player was serving, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
“When we watched the video, we did not observe that behavior from him,” he said.
Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson, the lone Black starter on the team, has said she “very distinctly” heard a “very strong and negative racial slur” come from the student section during Friday’s match while she was serving.
In addition to being called the N-word, Richardson’s godmother stated that the volleyball player was also told to “watch her back going to the team bus.”
“Various BYU Athletics employees have been reviewing video from BYUtv and other cameras in the facility that the volleyball team has access to for film review. This has been ongoing since right after the match on Friday night,” BYU Associate Athletic Director Jon McBride said in a statement. “The person who was banned was the person identified by Duke as using racial slurs. However, we have been unable to find any evidence of that person using slurs in the match.”
That could possibly mean that it may have been a second person who shouted the slur and have not been identified.
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As a result, BYU is asking fans to share any video that they may have to help with the investigation.
Police talked to the banned fan and he denied shouting any slurs and stated the only thing he yelled was that the players “shouldn’t hit the ball into the net.” He acknowledged that he did approach the Duke player after the match, thinking she was a friend of his who played for BYU.
An officer later reviewed footage, according to the report, and wrote: “There was nothing seen on the game film that led me to believe” that the man “was the person who was making comments to the player who complained about being called the N-word.”
