![Scottie Scheffler]()
Finally getting some of Scottie's side of the story.
The world No. 1 golfer
Scottie Scheffler was arrested nearly two weeks ago by Detective Bryan Gillis of the Louisville Metro Police Department in a bizarre traffic incident as he tried to make it to the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
According to the police report:
“Detective Gillis was directing traffic into Gate 1 of the Valhalla Golf Course due to the road being closed in both directions from an earlier fatal collision. Listed subject was driving eastbound to gain access to the course. Subject pulled into the westbound lanes, where outbound traffic was flowing and to avoid backed up traffic. Detective Gillis was in the middle of the westbound lanes, in full LMPD uniform and a hi-visibility yellow reflective rain jacket.
Detective Gillis stopped subject and attempted to give instructions. Subject refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging Detective Gillis to the ground. Detective Gillis suffered pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee. He was transported to the hospital for further medical treatment by emergency medical personnel.
Detective Gillis’ uniform pants, valued at approximately $80 were damaged beyond repair.”
I mean, even the worst case scenario (which is what the officer included in his report) makes it sound like a chaotic scene and a misunderstanding.
It also came out that Gillis failed to turn on his bodycam to capture the incident, a violation of the department’s policy (and awfully convenient for a situation where there are so many people contradicting the officer’s story…), but last week the Louisville Police
held a press conference and released video from a nearby pole camera that captured the incident.
And based on the video…well let’s just say that police report may have been a little exaggerated. A lot exaggerated. Ok, it may have been a flat out lie.
https://twitter.com/JoePompliano/status/1793680910543405259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1793680910543405259%7Ctwgr%5E982282e0aeb29a49bb13745f6d5783dec2d6012f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F2024%2F05%2F23%2Flouisville-police-brutally-mocked-on-twitter-after-releasing-video-that-appears-to-contradict-officers-statement-on-scottie-scheffler-arrest%2F
In the video, you see Scheffler turn in towards the entrance gate at Valhalla, and Gillis running up beside him before Scheffler stops, Gillis slams the vehicle, and immediately pulls the golfer out of the car to arrest him.
Now, is it possible that the whole “being dragged by the car” thing happened off camera and behind the buses that are in the front of the video? Sure. But based on the only available video evidence, it’s not looking great for Gillis and his ruined pants.
It was announced yesterday that Jefferson County Prosecutor Mike O'Connell would be addressing the court on the case today, in what may be a sign that the case is being dismissed. But ahead of that hearing this afternoon, another video has surfaced showing Scheffler's conversation with an officer after he was detained.
In the video, you hear Scheffler tell the cop that another police officer had told him to drive the opposite way of traffic to get into the gate at Valhalla...and that's apparently what Scheffler was doing.
Scheffler then says that he didn't realize that Gillis was an officer when he told the golfer to stop, but the officer's not buying it:
"Stop right there. Why does that matter if he's a security guard or police officer if somebody's telling you to stop?"
Scheffler admits that he may have been a little impatient as he was running late for his tee time, and says Gillis then reached into his car and hit him to try to get him to stop:
"Trying to get you to stop, right? Ok."
Scottie reiterates that he didn't know who was trying to get him to stop, but that only seems to aggravate the officer:
"If someone's telling you to stop, no matter who it is, you don't keep going. What happened is you kept going and you took him with you. Like, he's a pedestrian, ok? You took him with your car and drug him, which is not a good thing.
To make it even worse, when he asked you to get out of your car, you refused to get out of your car."
The golfer maintains that he had no idea that Gillis was a police officer when he refused to get out of the car:
"He didn't say 'Police, get out of the car,' he just hit me with his flashlight and yelled 'Get out of the car.'"
The officer then tells him that no matter who it is, he should have gotten out of the car:
"Let's go back to the first point. No matter if you thought it was a police officer or not..."
The officer stops himself, probably because he realized how ridiculous the point he was about to make was: "Oh it doesn't matter if it's a police officer or not, if somebody tells you to get out of the car you have to do it." Yeah, that's not how this works.
The video doesn't really tell us a whole lot, other than the whole scene seemed to be pretty chaotic and Scottie was given conflicting instructions by different officers on the scene.
https://twitter.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1795798545124970910
We'll have to wait and see whether the charges are dismissed this afternoon, but regardless, the whole thing seems like it's been a debacle from the beginning.
