LMPD officer during Scottie Scheffler’s arrest violated policy by not using body camera, chief says

The Louisville Metropolitan Police detective, whose confrontation with world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler made international headlines last week, was ‘counseled’ by his supervisor for his failure to use a body camera activated during the meeting, LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said during a news conference Thursday.

“Detective (Bryan) Gillis should have turned on his camera, but he did not. His failure to do so constitutes a violation of LMPD policy,” the chief said.

She added that the “corrective action” was noted on a “performance observation form.”

Scheffler was arrested early Friday morning while trying to enter Valhalla Golf Club to compete in the PGA Championship.

According to a court summons, Scheffler was driving east in a PGA player vehicle toward Gate 1 when he entered a westbound lane, “where outbound traffic was traveling,” to go around recoil caused by a previous fatal collision.

Gillis was “in the middle of the westbound lanes, in full uniform and with a high-visibility yellow reflective rain jacket,” when he stopped Scheffler and “attempted to give instructions,” the citation states.

LMPD alleged that Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated, causing Detective Gillis to the ground. Detective Gillis suffered pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee.”

Scheffler, who has since called the incident a “big misunderstanding” and competed in the tournament later that day, is charged with second-degree assault of a police officer — a crime punishable by up to several years in prison — as well as assault in the third degree. criminal mischief, reckless driving and failure to obey the signals of a traffic officer.

His arraignment is scheduled for June 3.

Although LMPD policy requires officers to activate their body cameras “before engaging in all law enforcement activities and encounters,” Gillis had not recorded footage of the confrontation.

Officers are only exempt from activating their devices if their assigned camera is “docked for upload after a period of duty.”

If an officer finds himself “involved in a sudden and unforeseen incident where urgent security concerns prevent immediate activation” of his body camera, he must activate it “at the first opportunity, when it is possible to do so in safely, in order to immediately capture the situation. »

Responding to a question from the Courier Journal during a news conference Tuesday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said he had “questions” about why there was no camera footage physical of the encounter, in particular of the arrest itself.

Neither Gwinn-Villaroel nor Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg took questions at Thursday morning’s news conference about the high-profile arrest.

Greenberg said the video was captured by a fixed camera mounted on a pole across the street from the incident, and that video, along with some dash cam video, was expected to be released shortly after Thursday’s news conference.

This story will be updated.

Contact journalist Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JWoodJourno.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD officer during Scottie Scheffler’s arrest violated body camera policy.