Scottie Scheffler arrest: All charges against world No. 1 as new video of traffic accident emerges

Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped all charges against Scottie Scheffler stemming from a traffic incident in Louisville before the second round of the 2024 PGA Championship. Scheffler had been charged with second-degree assault on a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer after moving his vehicle forward during a fiery incident outside Valhalla Golf Club.

“Based on the totality of the evidence, my office cannot move forward with the charges against Mr. Scheffler,” said Jefferson County District Attorney Mike O’Connell. “Mr. Scheffler’s description that this was ‘a huge misunderstanding’ is corroborated by the evidence. The evidence we reviewed supports the conclusion that Detective Gillis is concerned for public safety at this time school when he initiated contact with Mr. Scheffler, however, Mr. Scheffler’s actions and the evidence surrounding their communication during this misunderstanding do not meet the elements of a criminal offense.”

The decision comes a week after the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department announced that arresting officer Bryan Gillis “received corrective action” for failing to activate his body camera before taking physical actions. enforce the law as required by policy. That led to an internal investigation into whether proper police protocol was followed in Scheffler’s arrest.

LMPD released two videos of Scheffler’s arrest — one from a fixed pole camera located across the street and one from a camera on the police car’s dashboard. Footage from the video shows Gillis running toward Scheffler’s car and shining a flashlight into the driver’s side window as the 2024 Masters champion was turning into the Valhalla entrance. Neither captures the initial interaction between two people.

On the same day those videos were released publicly, a third were posted to Facebook about Scheffler’s conversation with an officer in the police car when he was arrested. It was not widely detected until Wednesday.

Scheffler explained to the officer that he mistook the person who blocked him for a security guard and did not recognize him as a member of the police: “All I saw was a yellow jacket.” He later admitted his impatience at a time when he was “quite late for my tee time.” Scheffler also claimed that the arresting officer “grabbed me by the shoulders and hit me” after entering the car without identifying himself as a police officer.

“This was an unfortunate misunderstanding,” Scheffler said Wednesday in a statement. “I have no ill will towards Officer Gillis. I want to put this incident behind me and move on, and I hope he will do the same. Police officers have a difficult job and I always take them seriously. This is a serious misunderstanding.” in chaos.”

According to the arrest report, Scheffler’s roadway was closed in both directions following a collision. fatal accident early that morning.

Scheffler allegedly “refused to comply” with Gillis’ instructions, causing Scheffler to continue moving his vehicle forward while Gillis claimed he was pulled to the ground by the PGA Championship courtesy car. The officer received medical treatment after he “suffered pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee” and his uniform pants, valued at about $80, were “damaged to the point where it cannot be repaired”.

Throughout this ordeal, Scheffler’s defense attorney, Steven Romines, maintained that his client did nothing wrong. He affirmed that there was no interest in resolving the case. Preparing to bring the case to trial or dismiss, Romines and Scheffler saw the latter come true.

“We are pleased that the case was dismissed today,” Romines said. It was clearly dismissed with prejudice, which is what we are asking for.” “We are prepared to move forward and litigate this matter. We are also prepared to litigate the matter civilly. … Whenever Scottie has to appear in court, we will begin The litigation was a civil matter. He didn’t want to do it.