Woman Speaks Out After Witnessing Ryan Lochte's Gas Station Incident with Teammates: I Saw a Gun Pulled on the Swimmers
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As questions swirl about an alleged robbery of Ryan Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers during the Olympic Games – which police say they suspect was fabricated to cover up alleged vandalism of a gas station – an eyewitness to part of the incident has come forward to PEOPLE.
Bruna Castro-Ruiz, 28, says she saw part of what unfolded early Sunday at a gas station in Rio, as Lochte and his teammates headed back to the Olympic village. (She says she has already spoken to police about what she saw.)
Lochte has said the foursome was robbed at gunpoint after stopping at the gas station on the taxi ride home – an account he has changed slightly from earlier versions given to media.
But local police later told PEOPLE that one of the swimmers in the group was seen on security video allegedly damaging a bathroom at the gas station, and that the swimmers gave over their wallets as payment for the incident.
Lochte returned to America before authorities ordered further questioning of the group, but the three swimmers with him that night – Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen – are still in Brazil and have said they will cooperate with police.
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“I saw when they came out from the bathroom,” Castro-Ruiz tells PEOPLE of what she saw the foursome do at the gas station. “They got in the car and the people who work there were yelling, ‘Stop, stop.’ But they were not paying attention to them, and they were just heading to the taxi.
"They got in the taxi, and people were still saying, 'Stop. You owe us money. You owe us money.’ They didn’t even turn their heads to listen. The workers were trying to talk to them about paying for the things they broke and they didn’t want to listen.”
Castro-Ruiz says the situation devolved from there.
“Then they got out of the taxi and were saying they weren’t going to pay for the things they broke,” says Castro-Ruiz, who says she is not connected to the gas station in any way. “One of them said that they hadn’t done nothing wrong, and that the gas station was trying to get money from Americans. He said that they were in the Olympics and that they hadn’t done anything wrong. I don’t know his name. He said that if they went to jail, that America would be mad.”
She continues, “Then the manager went to call the police and the security guard held a gun to keep them there until the police arrived, and one of the men said you can have your f–ing money and they took out their wallets and gave them money. They got back into the taxi and went away, and the police didn’t get there until later.”
Castro-Ruiz says she isn’t sure if the swimmers gave their “whole wallet or just their money,” and that she went home soon afterward because she feared possible violence.
But she is adamant that a gun was drawn on them “to keep the Americans there until the police came.”
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While a Brazilian official has told PEOPLE that Bentz and Conger said the robbery claim was a lie, a Lochte source said that there are three missing minutes from the released security footage at the gas station that “backs up” the robbery story.
Despite the controversy and confusion, some basic details are now the same among the competing stories: There was an altercation at the gas station between the swimmers and locals, a gun was drawn and one or more of the swimmers gave over money.
Much of the rest of what happened – for the moment – remains unclear.
• Reporting by STEVE HELLING
