Blake Davis
No footage was found of the initial interaction between Scottie Scheffler and the officer who arrested Detective Bryan Gillis last week outside the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Mayor Craig Greenberg and LMPD Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said in a statement. Thursday.
The pair confirmed that Gillis, contrary to LMPD protocol, did not activate his body camera at the time of the interaction – generating an internal investigation — but that a dashboard camera from a police vehicle and a stationary camera across the street were able to capture footage of the arrest. LMPD policy states that officers must activate body cameras before engaging in law enforcement activities.
“We are not aware at this time of any video that captures the initial interaction between LMPD and Mr. Scheffler,” Greenberg said. “We are releasing video footage today of the time of Mr. Scheffler’s arrest from two video cameras. One of those video cameras is a fixed pole camera that was on the other side of Shelbyville Road, and the other camera is from the dashboard camera of a police car.”
According to the arrest report, the road where the Scheffler incident occurred was closed in both directions after a fatal accident that occurred that morning.
Scheffler allegedly “refused to comply” with Gillis’ instructions, prompting Scheffler to continue moving his vehicle forward, with Gillis saying he was dragged to the ground by the PGA Championship courtesy car. The officer received medical treatment after “suffering pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee,” and his uniform pants, valued at approximately $80, were “damaged beyond repair.”
The world No. 1 was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding a police officer’s traffic signals.
“Det. Gillis had an encounter, as we know, with Mr. Scottie Scheffler. Det. Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera, but he didn’t,” Gwinn-Villaroel said. “Your failure to do so is a violation of LMPD policy…Det. Gillis did not have his body-worn camera operationally ready as required by our policy. He was performing law enforcement actions as defined in our policy … Det. Gillis was advised by his supervisor. We understand the severity of the failure to capture this interaction, which is why our officer received corrective action for this policy violation.”
Hours after his arrest, Scheffler shot a second-round 66 on Friday at the 2024 PGA Championship before falling off the pace on Saturday. While the legal process unfolds in Louisville, the Texan is in his home state this week playing the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.
Scheffler’s arraignment, originally scheduled for earlier this week, was postponed until June 3 following a successful motion by his defense attorney, Steven Romines.
“He did nothing wrong,” Romines told the media after Thursday’s news conference. “We will go to trial or the case will be dismissed. We have no interest in resolving the case.”
