Gunnar Bentz: Lochte removed sign, had heated exchange with guards
Ryan Lochte's teammate isn't painting a flattering picture of the 12-time Olympic medalist.
Gunnar Bentz went into detail Friday about Lochte's role in the tense encounter the U.S. swimmers allegedly had with armed gas station security guards Sunday morning in Rio, echoing the account Bentz says he gave to Brazilian authorities.
After leaving an event in a taxi around 6 a.m., the swimmers pulled into the convenience store to use the restroom, but there was no restroom inside, so they "foolishly relieved" themselves at the back of the building behind the bushes, Bentz said in a statement released by the University of Georgia.
"I am unsure why, but ... Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall," Bentz wrote, adding that he suggested the swimmers, including Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, return to the cab.
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Bentz claims two security guards instructed the swimmers to get out of the vehicle without drawing guns, then drew the weapons shorty thereafter, yelling at the athletes to sit on the sidewalk. That's when Lochte apparently began arguing with the guards.
"Again, I cannot speak to his actions, but Ryan stood up and began to yell at the guards," Bentz wrote. "After Jack and I both tugged at him in an attempt to get him to sit back down, Ryan and the security guards had a heated verbal exchange, but no physical contact was made."
A customer who acted as an interpreter relayed from the guards that they demanded the swimmers pay them in order to leave, and the swimmers did so, according to Bentz's account.
He also made an effort to question the reliability of the surveillance footage as definitive evidence.
"Videos of this situation have been emerging the last several days. However, I am confident that some video angles have not been shown that would further substantiate my account," Bentz wrote.
"I also believe some scenes have been skipped over. Additionally, I would like to stress that our original taxi was not pulled over; the only occupants of the taxi were the four of us and the driver; and to my knowledge, there was no damage done to the door or the inside of the restroom."
The 20-year-old stated that he was never a suspect in the case, claiming authorities saw him only as a witness, and insisted he never made a false statement.
Lochte apologized for fabricating the story Friday, after initially claiming he and his teammates were robbed at gunpoint by thieves posing as police officers.
He returned to the U.S. before Brazilian authorities could question him about his account, but Bentz and Conger were taken off their flight home for questioning.