Exclusive: The San Francisco State University Police Department has suspended its investigation into the hostage and assault incident involving female sports activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines that occurred last year, calling the charges “unfounded.”
Gaines said she was assaulted and held hostage for ransom in April 2023 after giving a talk about her experience as a college senior competing with male swimmer Leah Thomas at San Francisco State University. The two tied for fifth place at the national swimming championships.
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After Gaines’ speech, a violent crowd of protesters greeted her, stormed into the room, turned off the lights, ran to the podium where she was standing and assaulted her before taking her hostage.
Former college swimmer Riley Gaines testified during a hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health and Financial Services on December 5, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Gaines said he barricaded himself in a room after the assault and was punched multiple times even though he was under police protection.
Gaines, director of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute and host of Outkick’s podcast “Gains for Girls,” told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that she followed up on the San Francisco State University Police Department’s investigation into the incident last month. He said it was uploaded. “This is where I was taken hostage.”
“Can you please let me know when the investigation is complete?” she wrote in an email seen by Fox News Digital. “Could you please let me know what conclusions you have reached regarding the investigation and whether any charges will be brought against the individuals who threatened, threatened or attempted to harm me? Is there a timeline for this matter? Additional information available. “Do you need it from me?” ”
“After a thorough investigation, the charges in this case are unfounded and have been suspended pending further evidence,” the police officer wrote in an email dated Feb. 2.
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The officer claims the department emailed Mr. Gaines in June and July of last year “to follow up on the case,” but “did not receive a response.”
The officer then asked for “any photos or videos you may have and contact information for anyone who was present who may have digital evidence.”
The police officer added: “Please do so. Then the incident may be investigated further.”
However, Gaines told FOX News Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday that after the April 2023 incident, she met with campus police for hours and provided a public statement.
Riley Gaines speaks at Penn State University. (Riley Gaines)
“We talked for hours. I told them over and over again what happened. During that time, both of the police officers I was talking to were there, so they It’s not like we weren’t talking. I don’t know what happened,” Gaines told Fox News Digital.
Gaines said one of the officers who attended the incident sent him an email notifying him that the investigation was being discontinued.
Gaines told Fox News Digital that emails campus police sent her in June and July asked her to meet again and share her story “one more time.”
“I had no intention of doing that,” Gaines told FOX News Digital, saying she was advised not to do so. Gaines said her advisers told her she had already made a statement and that she did not need to make one again.
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Gaines also said campus police had promised to provide security camera footage for her investigation by early July, but “they did not provide the footage.”
Meanwhile, Gaines reflected on the incident and explained how the protests turned violent.
“They were everything under the sun,” she said. “That’s why women, men, men dressed as women, women dressed as men, and everything in between was so disorienting.”
“These people were turning off the lights, flashing the lights for a little while, and I think this was done completely strategically,” she explained. “I was confused and trying to understand what was going on.”
Gaines told FOX News Digital that as she was being assaulted, a female police officer (who she said was the one who notified her of the investigation) approached her and tried to take her to another location. he said.
“I didn’t see the police before the event, but she was completely unmarked, dressed all in black and had a mask on her face. So she came up to me and said, ‘Come with me. Please, I’m the police.” He grabbed me and pulled me,” Gaines said. “She couldn’t believe she was with the police because there was no indication that she was actually with them, but she honestly had no other choice.”
Gaines said officers took her to a back room where she was eventually barricaded and held hostage for more than four hours, demanding ransom.
Riley Gaines addresses the crowd at the Madison Public Library on Saturday, August 5, 2023 in Madison, Alabama. The event is part of Kirk Cameron’s 300-library reading tour promoting books with Christian values. (Fox News Digital’s Dana Mixer)
Gaines said protesters outside the room where she was being held were “negotiating the price each person would have to pay to get home safely to their families.” .
Gaines said the students reached an agreement in which each student had to pay them $10, but San Francisco police were eventually called to the scene.
“They were able to effectively remove me,” she said.
Gaines told Fox News Digital that she feels the suspension of the investigation sets a precedent.
“This only encourages what happened to me to happen to others because a precedent has been set,” she said. “I don’t see this happening to liberal speakers or people whose views are contrary to my own.”
Gaines told Fox News Digital that the protesters “essentially had every intention of forcing me to resign, to silence me, to intimidate me into submission.”
“But this is not the case,” Gaines said. “Actually, the opposite is true.”
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“People who want me to be quiet actually just encourage me to speak louder,” Gaines added.
The San Francisco State University Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
