PROVO, Utah — The ban against a Brigham Young University fan has been lifted after an investigation failed to find evidence that he used racial slurs to taunt an opposing player.
The athletics department initially banned the man, who is not a BYU student, from all athletic venues for allegedly shouting racial slurs during a volleyball match against Duke last month.
In a statement Friday, school officials said their investigation into the allegation had been completed and did not find any evidence to corroborate the allegation.
As part of the investigation, officials reviewed security footage from "all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match," and officials reached out to more than 50 people who attended the match, including individuals from the Duke athletic department, BYU athletic department, security and fans.
"As a result of our investigation, we have lifted the ban on the fan who was identified as having uttered racial slurs during the match," the statement reads. "We have not found any evidence that that individual engaged in such an activity. BYU sincerely apologizes to that fan for any hardship the ban has caused."
The conclusion of the investigation comes as people around the nation criticized BYU for its initial response when the incident occurred.
"There will be some who assume we are being selective in our review," BYU officials said in a statement. "To the contrary, we have tried to be as thorough as possible in our investigation, and we renew our invitation for anyone with evidence contrary to our findings to come forward and share it."
The Duke volleyball player who was the target of the slurs later spoke out praising school officials for their response to the incident.
The conclusion of the investigation comes just a week after the University of South Carolina canceled basketball games with BYU over the incident.
This article was written by Melanie Porter for KSTU.
