The police officer who stopped Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie has spoken out about his regrets over the mishandling of the situation.
Gabby was a 22-year-old vlogger who was killed by her partner, Brian, while the pair took a road trip in their van across the US back in 2021. Weeks before Gabby's murder, she and Brian were stopped by a police officer who questioned them about their dispute, with both Gabby and Brian blaming her as the instigator in the fight. As a result, he took Brian to a hotel for the night while leaving Gabby with their van.
Speaking at the independent investigation into how the situation was handled, Officer Eric Pratt of the Moab Police Department admitted that he had been "desperately [expletive] over that she got killed."
The officer, who was kind to Gabby during the exchange but ultimately agreed that she appeared to be the instigator in the incident—despite her having marks on her face and arms and responding to a call from someone claiming that they had witnessed Brian slapping Gabby—said: "I would have done anything to stop it if I would have known that was coming.
© Courtesy of Netflix"If I would have known [Laundrie] was going to murder her, I would have taken vacation to follow them, because I care about people, to the point where he was going to murder her … and I would have intervened and citizens arrested him in Wyoming! I would have taken my own time. I would have missed my family to go do that."
The investigation found that Officer Pratt, alongside his colleague, made several mistakes in their handling of the incident. During the exchange, a smiling Brian claimed that Gabby had started trying to grab the keys from him and that he had held her face to push her away while he was driving to defend himself.
© Courtesy of NetflixMeanwhile, Gabby was hysterically upset while cooperating with the police, asked if she could call her mother, and explained that she was struggling with anxiety and OCD. She also admitted that she had lashed out at Brian. The investigation did not lay blame on the responding officers but recommended additional domestic violence investigation training, as they didn't record the incident as domestic abuse and failed to make any arrests despite clear evidence of a physical fight.
Gabby was killed around two weeks after the incident in late August, with her body found at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on 19 September after a widespread search. Brian had returned to his parents' home in Florida with their van, refused to speak to the police during their investigation, and died by suicide in September.
© Courtesy of NetflixViewers of the true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito were horrified by the body cam footage from the incident shared on the new Netflix documentary series, with one posting: "So the cops get a call of someone witnessing a man hit a woman REPEATEDLY and they see Gabby hyperventilating obviously injured and they call HER the aggressor???" Another person added: "Gabby Petito would still be here if the police understood she was in duress and needed more than water. She would still be here if they truly believed she was the aggressor and actually arrested her. I could go on."
