HollyMatkinIsle of Wight County, VA – A Virginia State University basketball player and her girlfriend were arrested on Feb. 12, after the pair was pulled over for a speeding infraction, and became uncooperative and irate.
“I’m one of the biggest basketball f*********g point guards in Division I basketball right now!” Shonnice Vaughn, 25, screamed at officers at one point during the hour-long interaction, which was captured on bodycam video.
The deputy pulled the women over for traveling 68mph in a 55mph zone, but Vaughn, who was behind the wheel, denied that she was speeding, and refused to produce her driver’s license.
As the conversation continued, the deputy noticed a holster inside Vaughn’s vehicle.
“Where is the gun at?” he asked the women.
“We don’t have the gun,” Vaughn’s girlfriend, 25-year-old Natasha Bowman answered.
“Why is there a holster?” the deputy asked.
Vaughn then called her coach, James Hill, while Bowman tried to convince the deputy that she had actually been the one driving when the speeding infraction occurred.
“I don’t give a f**k. I don’t like racist cops! He a pig, and he nasty,” Bowman said as the situation began to escalate.
Police said that Vaughn could have been released on a summons, but because of her refusal to provide the officer with the information needed to do so, she was instead arrested, WVEC reported.
“I’m a basketball star, you can look me up,” Vaughn said in the video. “I’m going to school for criminal justice.”
Bowman repeatedly interrupted and called officers “pigs” as she was being read her rights.
With both women detained, police returned to the vehicle, where they noticed a loaded .40 caliber Smith & Wesson right where Bowman had been sitting in the back seat.
Investigators learned that the gun had been reported stolen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is Vaughn’s hometown, WVEC reported. Vaughn said that she was the one that had reported the theft of the weapon, and that she went to Wisconsin and took the gun back.
Vaughn was ultimately charged with speeding and no driver’s license, and Bowman was charged with disorderly conduct.
Both face a pending possession of a concealed weapon offense, WVEC reported.
Since their arrests, the women have accused all of the deputies on scene of being racists, and said that they fabricated events. Bowman and Vaughn also alleged that deputies stole $1,200 from their vehicle.
Virginia State University said that Vaughn is now “a former member of the VSU women’s basketball team,” WVEC reported.
You can watch portions of the deputy’s bodycam footage in the video below: