Gabby Petito case: Officers stopping couple should be put on probation, investigator recommends
Two police officers responded to a domestic violence call involving Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie last year in Moab, Utah, should be placed on probation for what the city called “several unintentional mistakes” made during the encounter, according to an independent investigator.
Petito and Laundrie were traveling through Moab on August 12 as part of a long road trip when police responded to a call in which a witness said he saw the pair engaged in an argument in home before driving away.
According to the police report, officers pulled the couple over after the truck exceeded the speed limit, suddenly left the lane and veered onto the curb.
Full-body camera video by officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins shows Petito and Laundrie – who are engaged – admitting to a fight, with Petito saying she hit her fiancé first.
In lengthy conversations recorded on bodycam, Pratt said that Petito should be sent to prison because under Utah’s domestic violence laws she is considered the primary aggressor and victim.
Petito and Laundrie both protested, and the officers eventually agreed not to charge Petito as long as she and Laundrie agreed to spend the night together.
In an independent investigative report, Captain Brandon Ratcliffe with the Price City Police Department said officers neglected their duties by not bringing any charges.
“I believe officers were responding to calls for domestic violence and it was likely that domestic violence was committed,” Ratcliffe said. “This would have meant that an arrest was made, either by citation or in custody.”
However, Ratcliffe notes that there seems to be only enough evidence to convict Petito in this regard, not Laundrie.
As part of their road trip, which has been captured on social media, Petito and Laundrie then headed to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming before Laundrie returned alone to her parents’ home. I’m in Florida on September 1st.
After Petito was reported missing by her family, her remains were found in Wyoming in mid-September. A coroner said she died of strangulation.
Laundrie disappeared just days after Petito was reported missing. He was found dead in a Florida nature reserve on October 20 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The FBI described Laundrie as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance, but the arrest warrant only charges him with unauthorized use of someone else’s debit card and PIN and has nothing to do with her death.
Ratcliffe, who was tasked by the city with looking into the case, said he could not speculate on whether the officers’ various actions in August could have prevented Petito’s death.
“Would Gabby still be alive today if this case had been handled differently? That’s an unanswerable question, although it’s the answer many want to know,” the report said. “No one knows and no one will know the answer to that question.”
In a statement, the city did not address any disciplinary action against the two officers but said it “intended to implement the recommendations of the report” on new policies for the police department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers.
“Based on the findings of the report, the City of Moab believes our officers demonstrated kindness, respect, and empathy in its handling of this incident,” the city statement said.
In an interview for the inquest, Pratt said that although he accepts that he may have made a mistake in proceeding with the stop, he is still haunted by Petito’s death.
“I really care. I’m very disappointed about it,” he said. “That day I cared and I still care. I don’t think the public understood that we… I don’t know if they knew we cared. I don’t know if they did.”
Ratcliffe wrote in his report that, at the time, not a single officer knew his actions were wrong,
“Both believe in the moment when they make the right decision based on the totality of the presented situations,” he said.
CNN has reached out to both Pratt and Robbins for a response.
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