NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One day after saying they could investigate a video showing apparent abuse of an unconscious LSU fan only if the man filed a complaint, New Orleans police sent out a wanted poster.
It asks the public to identify a white man described as a person of interest in a sexual battery late Jan. 9 — the night Alabama beat LSU, 21-0, in the BCS Championship football game in the Superdome.
However, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas says police are still investigating whether there was a sexual assault. “It could well be considered a sexual assault. That’s one of the things we’re looking into. That’s one of the reasons we’d like to talk to the people involved,” he said Wednesday.
The video has gone viral on the Internet. It ends with a man in a red Alabama jacket simulating a sex act on a man who is wearing an LSU-purple T-shirt and who had passed out on a restaurant counter.
On Tuesday, police spokeswoman Remi Braden said police could not investigate unless the apparent victim, shown slumped forward on a restaurant counter, filed a complaint. She did not immediately return an e-mail asking why police changed their minds.
The poster of the “person of interest” was sent as an attachment to an e-mail headlined “After Further Review and Investigation, the NOPD is now asking the Public for their Assistance in Identifying the Person of Interest in this involved.”
 
 
 
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