An alleged racial assault reported Nov. 10 has been deemed fabricated by the Bowling Green City Police Department.
News of the alleged assault surfaced when Eleesha Long, 24, of Bowling Green, posted on Facebook about the incident. She then filed an official police report after prompting from “someone affiliated with BGSU,” according to the report.
In the initial hand-written report, Long stated while walking down Crim Street to collect yard signs, three white males began throwing rocks at her and using the N word from across the street. After she yelled back, the males allegedly crossed the street and surrounded Long in the 100 block, saying they were “making America great again,” while shoving her a few times and striking her across the cheek before running down Crim and turning on Clough Street.
Her Facebook post stated she was wearing an Obama HOPE shirt.
The reporting officer wrote in the file that the incident allegedly occurred between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Nov. 9. There was red bruising on the right side of Long’s neck and some redness on her right cheek, the report stated. Residents on Crim, home at the reported incident time, said they heard no commotion.
“Long had apparently made a post on her open Facebook account describing the assault and had allegedly stated in the post that she had filed a police report with the Bowling Green Police. Long had not filed a report until she was contacted by a representative of Bowling Green State University,” the report said.
The report stated Long changed her story several times when confronted with conflicting issues regarding her original statement, including changing the location of the assault to the intersection of Crim and Clough streets, the time and date the incident occurred and her retracting her statement about being struck in the face.
According to the report, Long told police later that she was intoxicated after walking home from Howards early Wednesday morning, sometime after 1 a.m., and that’s when the males assaulted her. She also said she was not wearing an Obama HOPE shirt.
Police got a warrant from Verizon and Facebook to look into Long’s text messages and posts, which showed several more inconsistencies from any of the reports she had made. The language in the texts was angry and vulgar.
While Long’s initial report said she was collected signs on Crim Street, one text to her mother at 8:56 a.m. Nov. 9 stated that she was at the police department because she was attacked by Trump supporters on her way to school.
Other texts state she sought medical attention, but she said in an interview with police she never got any medical help.
Lt. Dan Mancuso told a BG24 reporter over phone Thursday afternoon that information collected from phone towers showed Long wasn’t on Crim Street at the time she claimed.
Long has since been charged for falsification and obstructing official business.
