Gabby Petito case: Shocking footage shows Brian Laundrie FIST-BUMPING Moab police
MOAB, UTAH: In a recent development in the Gabby Petito death case, the 22-year-old's family filed a $50M lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department alleging that its officials failed to protect their daughter, whose life was in danger when officers investigated the fight between her and her fiancée Brian Laundrie. The shocking police bodycam footage from the officers at the scene reveals Laundrie joking and laughing with the police while Gabby, visibly distressed, answers the questions she was asked.
The police investigation carried out on August 12, 2021, was captured on the police’s bodycam which showed a police officer and a park ranger interrogating Gabby and Laundrie after responding to a 911 call about domestic violence outside the Moonflower Café. The encounter between the police and Gabby happened just weeks before she went missing in August 2021. The footage showed a visibly distressed Gabby telling the officers that she and Brian had been "fighting all morning."
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"While the full evidence has not yet been made public, when it is released, it will clearly show that if the officers had been properly trained and followed the law, Gabby would still be alive today," Lawyer James McConkie, who is representing the Petito family, said in a statement announcing that the claim's notice has been filed. As mentioned by McConkie, the bodycam footage when the police stopped them in Moab has revealed a few shocking moments and errors made by the officials. Here is what they did wrong:
Gabby’s bruises
In the bodycam footage, Gabby was seen recounting the scars and bruises she received from her fiancée. She revealed that Laundrie grabbed her face and left a gash on her cheeks along with welts on her arms. Even the police noticed a few of the bruises on her arms and asked, “Did he hit you though? I mean, it's OK if you're saying you hit him. I understand if he hit you, but we want to know the truth if he hit you."
"I, I guess, yeah, but I hit him first…" Gabby replies before the officer presses her for more details. "He like grabbed my face, like, as I guess. He didn’t like like hit me in the face. He didn’t like punch me in the face. This was the moment when the cops made a huge error and didn’t take a picture of the scratches on her face or the bruises. Those pictures can be used as evidence in the upcoming legal fight.
Fist bump with cops
In the video, Gabby was visibly distressed but Laundrie looked very calm. In fact, he was seen fist bumping one of the policemen who arrived at the location. The officials were cracking jokes with him and they drove him to the hotel he was staying in. During one such conversation between Laundrie and a police officer, the officer was seen telling him, "We feel bad for you." Did the police officers try to ignore the clear signs of domestic violence or was there was something else?
Missed signs of domestic violence
The new lawsuit filed by the the Petito family alleges that the officials failed to "recognize the obvious indicators of domestic violence" when they interviewed Gabby and Laundrie. Had they noticed the apparent indicators, "it would have been clear to them that Gabby was a victim of intimate partner violence and needed immediate protection," the suit states. The family further claims that when answering questions about her fight with Brian, Gabby displayed to officers all of the "classic hallmarks of an abused partner" that they did not notice.
Officers tell Brian that he did nothing wrong
After Gabby showed her bruises to the officials, one officer, Daniel Robbins, went to Laundrie and said that they believed that he was a victim of a domestic assault. When they said that Gabby was going to jail, he protested and offered to spend the night in jail instead of her, but the officer says, "You did nothing wrong."
Robbins is seen backing Laundrie saying, "I’m sorry that all this has happened. I’m sorry that it went to this extent."
Officers failed to adequately request background information
An independent investigation revealed that the officers failed to request adequate background information on both Gabby and Laundrie. Officers also failed to take pictures of their driver's licenses. "Because of the misspelled name, if there had been a protective order under her name, there’s a chance they wouldn’t have found it," the report states.
Utah laws
"Officer Pratt [then] decided - incorrectly - that Utah law only recognizes assault if the perpetrator intended to cause bodily injury," claimed Gabby's family.