Police investigate Olympic village disturbance that left one Games official hurt - NBC News

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TOKYO — What happens in the Olympic village, has mostly stayed in the Olympic village.

But word leaked out Sunday that police broke up an illegal gathering early Saturday where some athletes were drinking and at least one injury was reported.

Toshiro Muto, the games chief executive, then confirmed to reporters that several athletes were caught drinking in a park. Police were investigating and would "take appropriate action," he said.

Muto did not address whether anybody was injured or give any other details.

However, Tokyo Metropolitan Police told NBC News that officers responded around 2 a.m. local time Saturday (12 p.m. Friday ET) to reports that several non-Japanese athletes were drinking and carousing on the street, defying requests by games officials to stop. One official suffered a sprained leg during the disturbance, they said.

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Athletes are not prohibited from bringing liquor into the Village, but because of Covid-19 restrictions they are prohibited to drinking in public or holding parties in common spaces.

Organizers have barred reporters and others from venturing into the sealed-off section of Japan’s capital city where most of the 11,000 competitors have been staying.

With Covid cases rapidly rising and the Japanese public fearful that an influx of visitors from abroad could make the crisis worse, that was by design.

So far six people connected to the Olympics have been banished from the games, including two silver medalists from the country of Georgia who got the boot this week for breaking the Covid-19 rules by wandering out of the village.

Vazha Margvelashvili and Lasha Shavdatuashvili, were spotted sightseeing near Tokyo Tower on Tuesday after their judo matches were finished, Games officials said.

Under the Olympics "playbook," athletes are prohibited from wandering around the city and visiting tourist areas, shops, restaurants, bars or gyms.

Muto on Sunday called that a “clear and serious violation” of the rules and said the Georgian embassy has apologized for their behavior.

July 30, 202102:32

Two electricians from the United States were also banned and two more from Britain were arrested for allegedly using cocaine about three weeks before the Olympic games officially opened on July 23, Japanese officials said.

NBC News has reached out to the Tokyo metropolitan police for the status of those cases.

Tokyo-based Aggreko Events Services Japan has confirmed that four of their workers were arrested and that the company is cooperating with police.

"Should the allegations turn out to be true, Tokyo 2020 will issue a strict warning to the company and advise them to take all possible measures to ensure that such an incident does not happen again," Olympics organizers said in a statement.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior writer for NBC News Digital.

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Police investigate Olympic village disturbance that left one Games official hurt - NBC News
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Protests unfold as city reburies remains that could be linked to Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre - ABC News

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Analysis on the remains will determine if they are massacre victims.

July 31, 2021, 8:03 PM

• 5 min read

Protesters gathered outside an Oklahoma cemetery on Friday to decry the reburial of remains exhumed earlier this summer that could be linked to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

The remains of 19 people exhumed from Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa were reinterred Friday in the same place they were found. The remains were exhumed as a part of a city effort to find unmarked burials from the violent event -- which happened 100 years ago -- when a white mob stormed the Greenwood District of Tulsa, a predominantly Black area dubbed "Black Wall Street" on May 31, 1921. The mob destroyed and burned 35 city blocks of the thriving Black neighborhood to the ground.

Oklahoma originally recorded 36 deaths in the brazen attack, but a 2001 commission reported the number was as high as 300.

Tulsa Race Massacre descendant Heather Nash, left, yells at Brenda Alford, 1921 Graves Public Oversight Committee member, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Phoebe Stubblefield as remains from a mass grave are reintered at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Okla., July 30, 2021.

However, dozens of protesters had gathered to denounce the Friday reburial without a proper funeral ceremony. The burial process was closed to the public.

"It's disgusting and disrespectful that these are our family members and we are outside of the gate and they are inside of the gate where they are," Bobby Eaten, a descendant of a massacre victim, said to ABC Tulsa affiliate KTUL.

A mass grave is re-filled with dirt after a small ceremony at Oaklawn Cemetery, Friday, July 30, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. The mass grave was discovered while searching for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The city of Tulsa told ABC News that the reburial went on as planned based on a proposal presented to a public oversight committee that was approved in March, "as on-site forensic analysis, documentation and DNA sampling were complete."

Further, the city had to abide by permit requirements filed with the state's Department of Health and the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office, which required the remains be temporarily interred at Oaklawn Cemetery. An internment plan was required before moving forward with the excavation.

City spokeswoman Michelle Brooks told ABC News that the city remains "committed to transparency during this investigation" and research experts will report their findings from the excavation this fall as well as recommendations for next steps.

A group prays during a small ceremony as remains from a mass grave are reintered at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Okla., July 30, 2021.

All public oversight committee members, the physical investigation team and North Tulsa clergy involved with the exhumation were invited to the reburial, Brooks said.

Brooks said analysis will be done on the remains to determine if they are massacre victims.

"If they are, then we will want to try to match DNA with descendants and let descendants decide where they want them to be buried. If they can't be identified, we would work to establish a permanent memorial," Brooks said.

While on-site forensic analysis and DNA sampling from the remains are complete, she noted DNA matching with potential descendants could take years.

There are two more sites the city is looking at for possible massacre victim remains, KTUL reported.

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