More questions around the August 12 run-in Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie had with police are being asked. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, in the body cam video released of the authorities interacting with the young couple, Petito was asked if Laundrie hit her.
While Petito said no, Laundrie didn’t hit her, she did reveal that he grabbed her face and pushed her away. In the end, she admitted to being the one to hitting Laundrie and as a result, police made the conclusion that it was Petito who was the aggressor.
Here Is the Original Body Cam Footage Involving the Officers, Gabby Petito, and Brian Laundrie:
And because of that, if they were to “make an arrest or issue a citation,” like Utah law requires, it would be Gabby Petito who would get arrested or given the citation.
RELATED: Duane ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Chapman Joins the Hunt for Gabby Petito’s Fiancé Brian Laundrie
“The witness says, ‘I never saw him hit her. I saw him shove her, but I couldn’t tell if it was an aggression against her or her defense against her as far as her being the aggressor,’” one of the officers says in the bodycam recording. “So at this point, unless the guy’s screaming that he’s going to jail and did something to this girl, it sounds like she is the primary aggressor.”
After that body cam was released, it was revealed that the police made the ultimate decision to let Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie decide whether or not they should be separated for the night as they called their spat more of a mental and emotional breakdown, rather than a domestic dispute. In the end, Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie did not separate.
Here Is Audio of the 911 Call:
However, people are now questioning the actions taken on August 12 after the 911 call and the call dispatchers made to police have been revealed.
As Mamas Uncut previously reported, when the 911 caller reported Petito and Laundrie, he told the dispatcher that he wanted to report a “domestic dispute.”
The 911 caller further said that when he drove by “the gentleman was slapping the girl.” As the caller went on, he revealed that as the couple “continued to run up and down the sidewalk, he proceeded to hit her” before getting back in their white Ford van and driving off.
RELATED: The 911 Call Reporting a ‘Domestic Dispute’ Between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie Released
Now, as Fox 13 Utah reports, the dispatchers call to police did mention that the “reporting party states a seeing male hit a female, domestic. […] Phone number is [redacted], name’s [redacted],” the dispatcher responds at 4:42 p.m. “I’m not sure [inaudible], but the female who got hit, they both, the male and the female, both got into the van and headed north.”
Now an external investigation is underway to further look into how those Moab police officers handled that call. As Utah attorney Brett Tolman told Fox News, he expects that disciplinary action will be the result of that investigation.
“I think they will find that they sort of manipulated the situation to not take someone into custody,” he told Fox News on Sunday. “I think the fact that they had another eyewitness that is not involved in it, and is objective, and said ‘he hit her’ … you’re going to have a majority of officers take him into custody.”
In an earlier interview with one of the officials involved in that August 12 call, Melissa Hulls told the Deseret News, “This wasn’t a good day for anybody. We thought we were making the right decision when we left them.”
“I honestly haven’t looked at my body camera footage for that night. It’s hard to think about now because I feel like I could’ve said more to help her,” Hulls told the Deseret News. “It’s hard not to second-guess myself, and wish I said more, or wish I had found the right words to make her believe that she deserved more.”
The external investigation is still ongoing.