Two sheriffs in South Carolina say their deputies did not racially profile Shaw University students during a traffic stop.
A charter bus carrying 18 students from the historically Black university in Raleigh was stopped on Interstate 85 on Oct. 5. Deputies allege the bus was weaving in and out of traffic.
At a Monday press conference, Spartanburg County sheriff Chuck Wright said the bus was one of 39 pulled over that week as part of a campaign targeting unsafe driving.
"This bus was unmarked with tinted windows," Wright said. "We had no idea and no way to know who or what was on that bus, if anybody was on the bus."
Officer video of the traffic stop from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office shows a police dog searched the bus's luggage compartment. The driver was issued a warning ticket. No passengers were taken off the bus.
Shaw University president Paulette Dillard says she was outraged by the stop.
"This behavior of targeting Black students is unacceptable and will not be ignored nor tolerated," she said in a statement released after the incident. "Had the students been White, I doubt this detention and search would have occurred."
Responding to Dillard's statement, Wright said the stop had nothing to do with race.
"I have no idea why the president wrote the letter the way she wrote it," Wright said. "I really have no idea why she would come and look at the video," he said.
Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller added: "If my guys see a bus weaving in their lane, and they failed to stop it, check that driver and make sure they're not too sleepy, then we could have a busload of Shaw students that was involved in a tragic traffic fatality."
Contacted after the press conference, a Shaw University spokesperson declined to comment on the sheriffs' remarks.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of North Carolina's congressional delegation have written to the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for an investigation into racial bias in the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office.
