F & M Claims City Police Failed to Respond

As a follow up to coverage of the altercation on Tuesday afternoon between F & M security and Lancaster Post editors Ron Harper, Jr. and Chris Hart Nibbrig, at 8:05 AM, NewsLanc reporter George Sheldon stopped at the Franklin & Marshall Public Safety Office (PSO) and spoke with Mark Ennis. He declined to speak about the incident. He advised Sheldon to contact F & M Media Services.

At 8:30 Sheldon met with Desk Sgt. Wenner at City Police Station. She knew nothing of the incident (the shift was off yesterday). She told the reporter to contact Sgt. Mike Branner by phone, and leave a voice message. Branner was not in his office.

In route to endeavor to interview F & M President John Fry, Sheldon called Hart Nibbrig. Hart Nibbrig said there would be a press conference at 2:00 PM. He stated City police were not called by F & M security at the time of the incident.

Sheldon spoke with Deb Brooks at Fry's office at 9:20 AM. She said he was not in and referred the reporter to Nancy Collins at the Media Services Offices.

Sheldon met with Dulcey Antonucci, Director of Media Relations of Franklin & Marshall, and Nancy Collins, VP for College Communications. They said they did not read/receive the PSO report: they said it has been turned over to their attorney and is privileged information. They said they don't know the details of what happened. They learned the details of the incident from NewsLanc.

Sheldon gave them a series of questions, which they promised to answer.

Later in the morning, Antonucci notified Sheldon that PSO had not deleted images from Ron Harper, Jr. and Chris Hart Nibbrig's camera. She said the security personnel took the camera, placed it on the ground, then picked it up, placed it on the vehicle, then when the two were transported, the camera was placed in property bags at the PSO. The camera was returned when both were released.

Also, Antonucci said Lancaster City/Lancaster Township Police were called by the F & M PSO. She stated Lancaster police never arrived!

Editor's note: NewsLanc will follow and report on developments throughout the day.