LOUISIANA
– Lafayette police said a woman made up a story about two men attacking her and
stealing her wallet and hijab on Wednesday.

“During
the course of the investigation, the female complainant admitted that she
fabricated the story about her physical attack as well as the removal of her
hijab and wallet by two white males,” the Lafayette Police Department said
in a news release today.

The
incident is no longer under investigation..

The
initial report came just after 11 a.m. Wednesday, when University of Louisiana
at Lafayette police said they received a report of a robbery on Smith Street
near campus.

The
woman had claimed that two men stormed out of a vehicle and struck her with a
metal object, before snatching her wallet and removing her hijab. The woman claimed one of the males was
wearing a “Trump hat.”

The
alleged incident had garnered national attention and had drawn the
response of the Louisiana affiliate of the American Civil Liberties
Union.

The
ACLU affiliate released a new statement Thursday evening, after Lafayette
police’s announcement.

“We
don’t know the full story of what happened yesterday, and we don’t know what
caused her to recant,” the ACLU statement said. “We stand by our call
for all Louisianians to reject anti-Muslim bigotry. Our Muslim neighbors’
rights remain unchanged. We will continue to speak out against this harassment
and bigotry, and call for equal protection under the law.”

Fabricated or
not, students at the University were disheartened by the initial claims and
called for unity on campus with messages of peace and freedom.

Police have not
said whether they are interested in pressing charges for falsifying a police
report.