LYNCHBURG, Va. – A video recorded on Dewitt Street around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday shows Virginia University of Lynchburg football players sitting on a sidewalk in handcuffs.
"Watching, I was terrified, 'cause those are my kids, also," Bobby Rome said, "Based on things I've seen in the news ... one little slip up could be the end of someone's life."
Rome is the head coach for VUL's football team and said he witnessed the encounter.
"He asked them to put their hands on the dash. I guess they didn't hear it. And he yelled, ‘Put your hands on the dash!’ with his hands on the gun. At that point, I yelled out, 'Shut up! Put your hands on the dash.'"
Rome said his players were leaving practice when a Lynchburg police officer pulled the boys over for a broken taillight.
In the video the officer claims he smelled marijuana. The boys said he pulled his gun on them.
"I didn't smell any marijuana upon approaching the car," Rome said.
According to the video, police didn't find any drugs.
"He (a Lynchburg police officer) came to me and said, ‘Coach, the reason we have so many cars is because simply we have four guys here and we have five cops. They just so happen to drive five different cars.' That's very much understandable. He doesn't know if they're going to take off and run."
In the future, Rome wants his players to be on the right side of the law.
"I need you to make sure we're responding in the right way, because we don't know. Maybe next time, they're not going to hear that interaction with the police officer and that’s going to be his justification to pull the trigger," Rome said.
10 News reached out to Lynchburg police and shared the video with them. They said: "We were just made aware of the video. Per policy, all complaints are investigated. We will conduct an internal investigation."
Rome said he will hold a meeting with his players Thursday to talk about how to properly interact with police.