N. Idaho police, FBI investigate possible hate crime against Utah women’s basketball team

Law enforcement organizations have opened an investigation in Coeur d’Alene after alleged “racial hate crimes” caused players from a visiting women’s college basketball team that was in the NCAA Tournament to leave the city.

Officials explained what happened at a news conference Tuesday after the story began receiving national attention.

Players from the University of Utah women’s basketball team were participating in the NCAA Tournament regional games being played in Spokane, Washington, where hotel space was apparently insufficient to house all of the programs at first.

Utah’s team, as well as one other program playing in Spokane, was staying at the Coeur d’Alene Resort, and members of the Utes’ travel party encountered a truck displaying a Confederate flag while walking to dinner at a local restaurant on Thursday, according to Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Secretary Tony Stewart.

“The driver began spewing appalling racial slurs at them, including the ‘N’ word,” Stewart said at the news conference.

When players and others left the restaurant, the driver, along with “reinforcements from fellow racists,” followed them back to the resort while “continuing the racial threats while revving up their engines,” Stewart said.

The players “rushed back to the hotel” and, along with coaches and other staff, checked out early to stay in hotels elsewhere in Washington state, Stewart said.

“To the young women who endured racial slurs while visiting, I offer my most sincere apology,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said at the news conference. “We, all of us, stand with you. We embrace you. We celebrate your accomplishments and strongly denounce any malicious treatment towards you.”

Though the incident happened Thursday, it received little attention until KSL reported on statements made by Utah head coach Lynne Roberts at a press conference after a game. A video of Roberts’ statements, in which she called the incidents “racial hate crimes,” has been viewed more than 2 million times on social media.

“Everybody was in shock — our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that.”

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said law enforcement opened an investigation into the incidents. He said the FBI is involved because it could be a federal hate crime.

Idaho does not have a hate crime statute, per se, but it does have the crime of malicious harassment written in state code, which covers unlawful acts directed at a victim because of their “race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin.”

Malicious harassment can include verbal threats.

White said police are working to interview victims and contact the approximately 100 people believed to have witnessed the incidents. He asked anyone with information to contact police at 208-769-2320.

The mayor also apologized to the California Irvine women’s basketball team. Cal-Irvine spokesperson Michael Uhlenkamp told the Idaho Statesman that the incidents with the Utah team “did not involve any members of UC Irvine’s travel party,” but the team also did move out of its Coeur d’Alene hotel.

“The NCAA reached out to us, and we requested to move as well for the well-being and safety of our student-athletes and the entire travel party,” Uhlenkamp said by email.

Governor Brad Little denounced the incident on social media, calling it “unacceptable.

“There is no place for racism, hate or bigotry in the great State of Idaho,” Little said. “We condemn bullies who seek to harass and silence others.”