Officials probe possible hate crime against team

BOISE, Idaho — 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,

Wash., where hotel space was apparently insufficient to house all of the programs at first.

Utah’s team, and 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, 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, 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.”