The family of Gabby Petito is suing Utah police for $50 million
Moab City Police Department is being sued by the family of Gabby Petito, who was killed in August 2021 when she and her then-fiance Brian Laundrie were involved in an altercation in Utah. It is estimated that the family is suing for $50 million.
If police personnel had been properly prepared to deal with domestic violence situations, Petito’s family claims, she would still be alive today.
For years, “the Moab City Police Department has been plagued by high turnover, lack of leadership, and dangerous mismanagement,” one of the attorneys representing the Petito family, James McConkie said.
On the other hand, McConkie stated the Moab Police Department “neglected its duty” to give officers with the training and resources they needed, calling it a “institutional failure.”
When Petito and Laundrie called 911 to report domestic abuse in January, an outside law enforcement organisation found that Moab officers made many “unintentional mistakes” in their response.
The reviewer concluded that “mistakes were made” in the way this case was handled. “If this case was handled flawlessly, would it have changed anything? Nobody knows.”
Following the disappearance of Petito just before August 12, 2021, an official statement and investigation were made by the city of Moab on Wednesday. In the report, officers failed to issue a domestic violence citation to Ms. Petito, which led to the errors.
Even if Gabby was found to be the primary aggressor in the episode at hand, this does not necessarily imply that she was the primary aggressor throughout the relationship as a whole.
The Grand County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from a guy who said he observed a man slap a woman and then punch her before they got into their van and drove away.
“We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” he explained. “They ran up and down the sidewalk, he proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car, and they drove off.”
Petito and Laundrie were allegedly involved in a physical altercation in Moab City, Utah, later in the day. When police arrived at Petito’s home, they found her crying “uncontrollably” and said they had had “little arguments” earlier in the day. For the past four to five months, Laundrie informed officers, the couple had been on the road and had been arguing more frequently.
Footage released on Sept. 30 shows Petito telling an officer that Laundrie snatched her jaw, but she slapped him “a couple times” before that.
For the night, Petito and Laundrie are said to have parted ways, with Petito keeping the van and Laundrie seeking help with lodging from the police.
It was recorded on August 12th. Gabby Petito was assassinated at the conclusion of the month. On September 19, her remains were discovered in Wyoming.
According to Brian Steward, one of the lead attorneys in this case, “the Moab officers ‘failed in their duty to protect Gabby.'”
By failing to investigate and respond to Gabby’s life-threatening condition because of a lack of training and crucial domestic violence resources, the police failed to properly investigate the purported domestic abuse,” Steward stated in a press statement.
: “The Petito family believes that is is important as a society to hold our governmental institutions to account for such failures and to work toward changes to protect victims and domestic abuse and violence and prevent such tragedies in the future.” he added.