Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police at BGSU Monica Moll said the charges were dropped not because they were race-based, but because officers escalated what should have been a minor incident, which took place last weekend in Ohio.
According to Moll, a group of college students was acting rowdy on the night of the arrest. An officer passing by the students heard the word “fight” and went to investigate the situation, she said. However, Moll said she felt that the officer overreacted.
“College kids are going to be loud all the time, especially on the weekend,” she said.
Sheaffer explained in an interview that there were a lot of students outside on the street at the time and said he was not the student who yelled “fight.”
“It would have been easy for the officer to not know who said it, but I can assure you that it wasn’t me,” he said.
In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, Sheaffer said he was outside with his friends when police arrived at the scene. Sheaffer entered the house of his friend and closed the door.
According to Sheaffer’s account of events, a police officer then asked Sheaffer’s friend if she was aware that there was “a black male” inside her house.
Although his friend told the officer that Sheaffer was welcome in her house, he was handcuffed once he exited the house, Sheaffer said in a statement.
As news of the arrest appeared online, the news spread rapidly on the Twitter and Facebook accounts of University students. Sheaffer said the aftermath of the situation got out of hand.
A message first posted by Sheaffer’s cousin sparked a viral social media campaign.
“I didn’t expect it to take off like that,” Sheaffer said. Sheaffer emphasized that he himself had not posted anything to Facebook during or after the arrest, nor did he comment on Facebook as the situation unfolded.
Although Moll said the incident was not racially charged, Sheaffer declined to comment on the role race played, only noting in the interview that he thought the incident was a result of “overzealousness.”
Sheaffer said he never intended to turn the issue into a race-based controversy.
“All I ever wanted was a dismissal, an apology and to get on with my life,” he said in the statement.
If there was not “a lot of advocacy on the part of family and friends,” he said it would have come down to his words against that of the officer.
Most of all, Sheaffer said his main goal is to return to his studies and football practice.
Antonia Hyman ’13, the president of the Black Student Union, said in an email that the recent developments in the case were a “relief.”
“However, this does not take away from the fact that this happens to many black men who do not receive justice,” she said.
Sheaffer’s full statement is available online at dailyprincetonian.com
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