The arraignment of Scottie Scheffler for four charges levied against him during an incident with Louisville police officers has hung in the air for most of a week. Scheffler finished the PGA Championship last weekend, and is now playing another tournament, the Charles Schwab Challenge, in Dallas this week.
In the meantime, the Louisville Metro Police Department has been investigating the incident and the protocols of its officers, particularly the arresting officer, Detective Bryan Gillis. Thursday, additional information was shared by LMPD in a press conference on Scheffler’s case. Here’s what we learned:
1. Detective Gillis’ failure
LMPD officers are expected to abide by strict body camera policies, which are outlined in a 10-page document on standard operating procedures. Detective Gillis failed to comply with two aspects of those policies, according to the department’s internal investigation.
“Detective Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera, but did not,” police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said during the press conference.
Officers are expected to activate their cameras for all enforcement activity, the policy states. But that seems to be a sticking point in this incident. Gillis, who was called to the scene at 5:16 a.m., in response to a fatal accident, was signaling traffic outside Valhalla’s main entrance when Scheffler arrived. Does signaling traffic necessitate the activation of a camera? Scheffler’s arrest, which also was not recorded, would certainly constitute as a police encounter. As a result, there are internal repercussions for Gillis, because he did not have his camera at least “in standby mode,” according to a performance observation signed by Gillis’s supervisors.
“Detective Gillis was counseled by his supervisor. We understand the seriousness of the failure to capture this interaction, which is why our officer has received corrective action for this policy violation.”
It is unclear what “corrective action” entails.
2. New videos released
Much of the incident remains foggy, between what Scheffler says happened and what Gillis reported in the arrest. But LMPD acknowledged Thursday they have not acquired any video footage of the initial actions between Scheffler and Gillis. Despite that, the LMPD published two videos captured in the area, one via a fixed camera attached to a pole. Another came from the dash cam of another police car that was pointed in the direction of the incident. Both provided limited footage.
As you can see below (relative timestamps of 22:50 on the first and 0:28 on the second), multiple shuttle busses were backed up, and police cars flanked the vicinity. Scheffler, driving a Lexus courtesy car for the week, can be seen pulling up to the entrance, though the busses block out much of his arrival.
These are the only videos that will be made public from the arrest. Jeff Darlington, an ESPN reporter, originally broke the news, and can be seen approaching the officers in the second video above. Darlington also shared video he captured from his phone of Scheffler being guided away from the scene in handcuffs.
