Lawyers for Gabby Petito’s family released the first photo of her with blood on her face during a domestic violence arrest in Utah just weeks before she was reportedly killed by her ex-fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
Moab City Police came into contact with the travel-blogging couple on August 12, 2021, after a witness reported seeing Laundrie punch Petito and try to steal her phone and drive off without her outside the Moonflower Co-op, an organic grocery store. from the main road of the city.
Parker & McConkie first mentioned the photo’s existence in a November 2022 wrongful death lawsuit against the department. According to the law firm, the photo was taken by Petito herself just before the stop and found on her phone.
In a statement released Tuesday, the family’s lawyers claimed that “According to available records, the photo was taken at 4:37 p.m., on or before the estimated time of the first 911 call,”
A witness reported an alleged domestic violence incident at approximately 4:30 p.m. on the day of the incident, as Fox News Digital first reported.
About 15 minutes later, according to bodycam video from the Moab Police Department, they stop at the entrance to Arches National Park. The couple were questioned by officials for about an hour.
People also read…
“Gabby took a photo of her injury, which shows blood over her nose and left eye.” says the civil complaint.
She allegedly disclosed the injuries to Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt, who, according to the family’s attorneys, “did nothing more to investigate or document the injury.”
The city of Moab is not commenting on legal issues, a spokesman said Tuesday.
“The photo shows the cut previously noticed on her left cheek, as well as blood smeared from her forehead, over her left eye and cheek and over her nose, indicating she was grabbed across her face in such a way that her airway was likely obstructed. continues the statement from Petito-Schmidt’s attorneys, posted on Parker & McConkie’s website.
“Gabby documented the injury and tried to tell Moab officers during the stop, but the seriousness and significance of these types of attacks and injuries was completely ignored.”
Pratt and fellow Moab officer Daniel Robbins were determined to have made “unintentional mistakes” in the August 12, 2021 check, as a result of the outside investigation sparked by the Moab Police Department’s response.
Despite a Utah provision that, according to the Petitos’ lawyers, required police to arrest or serve a summons, they split up the couple for the night and chose not to press charges.
The lawsuit also alleges that Petito was not the “predominant aggressor” in the altercation outside of Moonflower as claimed by police, which her parents’ counsel says is disproved by the image.
“Moab police did not recognize the violent grasp of Gabby’s face and the obstruction of her nose, mouth and airway as a critical prelude to her eventual death by strangulation which occurred a short time later,” they said. “The Moab Police Department did not listen to Gabby, investigate her injuries and the severity of her assault, and did not follow their own Utah training, policy and law.”
The body of Petito, whose remains were discovered on September 18, was reportedly bludgeoned and strangled to death by Laundrie on August 28 in Wyoming. On September 1, Laundrie drove Petito’s van back to his parents’ home in Florida.
He was found dead in a swamp on October 20 by local police and the FBI after inflicting a headshot on himself. A handwritten confession to Petito’s murder was in a dry bag nearby.
Laundrie’s parents and the Moab Police Department are being sued by Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, in connection with the sequence of incidents that resulted in and followed her death.
Keep visiting our Leedaily.com to stay up to date with the latest local news.
