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EXCLUSIVE: The San Fransisco State University Police Department has suspended its investigation into girls’s sports activities activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines’ hostage incident and assault final yr, saying the alleged charges are “unfounded.”
Gaines mentioned she was assaulted and held hostage for ransom in April 2023 after talking at San Francisco State University about her expertise in her senior yr of faculty competing in opposition to male swimmer Lia Thomas. The two had tied for fifth place in a nationwide swimming championship.
Following Gaines’ speech, she was met by a mob of violent protesters that she mentioned stormed into the room, turned off the lights, rushed to the rostrum the place she was standing and assaulted her earlier than holding her hostage.
Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines testified throughout a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services listening to on Capitol Hill December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Gaines was then barricaded in a room after the assault, and has mentioned she had been hit a number of occasions, even whereas beneath police safety.
Gaines, the director of the Riley Gaines Center on the Leadership Institute and host of Outkick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast, informed Fox News Digital on Wednesday that she adopted up with the San Fransisco State University Police Department final month on its investigation into the incident “where I was held hostage.”
“Can you please let me know if you have completed your investigation?” She wrote in an electronic mail reviewed by Fox News Digital. “I wondered if you can share with me any conclusions you have reached regarding your investigation and whether any charges will be filed against the individuals who sought to threaten, intimidate and harm me? Is there a timetable concerning this matter? Is there any additional information you need from me?”
In an electronic mail dated Feb. 2, an officer replied: “After a thorough investigation, the alleged charges in this case are unfounded and have been suspended pending further lead.”
The officer mentioned the division despatched emails to Gaines in June and July of final yr “for a case follow up,” which they declare “went unanswered.”
The officer then requested “any photos and/or videos you may have in your possession as well as the contact information for anyone who was present that may have digital evidence.”
The officer added: “Please do so and the case may be further investigated.”
But Gaines informed Fox News Digital in an unique interview Wednesday that after the incident in April 2023, she met with campus police for hours and supplied them with an official assertion.
Riley Gaines speaks at Penn State University. (Riley Gaines)
“We talked for multiple hours. I told them over and over and over and over and over again what had happened, which, all the while, both of the officers that I was talking to were there, so it is not like they didn’t know what happened,” Gaines informed Fox News Digital.
Gaines mentioned one of many officers current for the incident despatched the e-mail notifying her that the investigation had been suspended.
Gaines informed Fox News Digital that the emails the campus police despatched to her in June and July had been requests to fulfill once more, and to share her story “again.”
“I just wasn’t willing to do that,” Gaines mentioned, telling Fox News Digital that she was suggested in opposition to it. Gaines mentioned advisors informed her she had already given an announcement and did not want to take action once more.
RILEY GAINES URGES FEMALE ATHLETES TO BOYCOTT COMPETING AGAINST TRANS GIRLS: ‘DON’T RUN…DON’T SWIM’
Gaines additionally mentioned the campus police had promised to present her safety footage for her assessment by the start of July, however mentioned “they never provided the footage.”
Meanwhile, Gaines mirrored on the incident, describing the mob of protesters.
“They were everything under the sun,” she mentioned. “Women, men, men dressed as women, women dressed as men — and everything in between, which is why it was so disorienting.”
“These people turned the lights off, flickered the lights for a bit, which I imagine was done entirely strategically,” she defined. “I was confused and trying to make sense of what was happening.”
Gaines informed Fox News Digital that as she was being assaulted, a feminine officer — whom she mentioned is identical officer who notified her that the investigation had been suspended — approached her and tried to take her to a separate location.
“I didn’t meet any police before the event, and she was totally unmarked, wearing all black, her face was in a mask, so she comes up to me, and says ‘come with me, I’m the police’ and was grabbing me and pulling me,” Gaines mentioned. “I didn’t believe that she was with the police because there really was no indication that she was, but I honestly didn’t really have a choice.”
Gaines mentioned the officer took her to a again room the place she was finally barricaded and held hostage for ransom for greater than 4 hours.
Riley Gaines addresses the gang at Madison Public Library in Madison, Alabama, Saturday August 5, 2023. This occasion is a part of a studying tour of 300 libraries by Kirk Cameron which promotes books with Christian values. (Dana Mixer for Fox News Digital)
Gaines mentioned that the protesters outdoors the room she was being held in had been “negotiating a price I had to pay each of them to leave to be able to make it home safe to see my family.”
Gaines mentioned the scholars got here to an settlement that she needed to pay them every $10, however finally, the San Fransisco Police got here to the scene.
“They were able to effectively remove me,” she mentioned.
Gaines informed Fox News Digital that she feels that the suspension of the investigation units a precedent.
“This just encourages what happened to me to happen to other people because the precedent has now been set,” she mentioned. “We don’t see this happening to liberal speakers or to anyone with a dissenting viewpoint to that of my own.”
Gaines informed Fox News Digital that the protesters “had every intention of getting me to step down essentially, to shut up, to scare me into submission.”
“But this does not do that,” Gaines mentioned. “Actually, it does the opposite.”
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“These people who want me to be quiet, it really only encourages me to speak louder,” Gaines added.
San Francisco State University Police Department didn’t instantly reply to Fox News Digital’s request for remark.
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