Revealed
EVIDENCE 'IGNORED'
COPS who made the Gabby Petitio and Brian Laundrie traffic stop after a domestic violence complaint have been slammed as a new picture of her bloodied vlogger was released.
A heartbreaking new selfie of Gabby, allegedly taken only minutes before the stop, was released by attorneys for her parents on Tuesday.
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It allegedly showed blood smeared across the murdered vlogger's face and was taken on her phone at 4:37pm on August 12, 2021, after her boyfriend Brian Laundrie was seen striking her in the street.
A 911 call was placed by an unidentified witness to the couple's argument and they were stopped by cops at 4:55pm, shortly after leaving Moab, Utah.
In the bodycam of the traffic stop, Gabby claimed that her boyfriend Brian Laundrie had violently grabbed her face and cut her cheek.
Within weeks of this interaction, she is believed to have been strangled to death by Laundrie.
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Law firm Parker and McConkie released the new selfie on Tuesday, stating they had several media requests to do so after it was cited in a complaint by the Petito family against the Moab City Police Department.
The firm slammed the cops as they claimed the picture showed officers "ignored" Gabby's injuries and let Brian away during the stop.
"Gabby documented the injury and, during the stop, attempted to tell the Moab officers, however, the
seriousness and significance this type of assault and injury was completely ignored," said the statement.
"The officers ignored this critical evidence and did nothing to follow up on, or to further investigate, Gabby’s
report that Brian had violently grabbed her face and cut her cheek," it continued.
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The statement noted the injuries showed a previously noted cut on her left cheek along with blood smeared across her face.
The lawyers allege the photo shows injuries that indicate "she was grabbed over her face in such a way that her airways were likely obstructed."
The 911 caller who witnessed the incident reportedly told police that he saw Laundire slapping and punching Gabby, 22, in a parking lot in Moab, Utah.
Body-cam footage of the encounter shows a visibly distressed Gabby telling officers she and Laundrie had been "fighting all morning."
Through floods of tears, she also described how Laundrie had pushed her, grabbed her face and neck, and left her with a cut on the side of her cheek.
In their report, officers acknowledged that she had scratches and red marks on her face and arms.
A smiling Laundrie, meanwhile, issued officers a series of inconsistent statements and told them Gabby "gets worked up sometimes" and that he had been trying to calm her down.
He admitted to pushing her and claimed she struck him and scratched his face.
After more than an hour, one of the officers is heard concluding that Gabby was the "primary aggressor" of the dispute, with another directly telling Laundrie he is a "victim of domestic assault."
No charges were filed, and at officers' instructions, the couple separated for the night.
Just over two weeks later, Gabby was strangled to death by Laundrie at a campsite near Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.
Laundrie then returned to Florida and died by suicide at Carlton Reserve. His journal was found, where he confessed to killing Petito.
After an investigation, the police department admitted the responding officers made "several unintentional mistakes" in regards to how they handled the situation.
The US Sun has reached out to the Moab Police Department for comment.
"The Petito family is heartbroken to see how Moab police officers failed to recognize the danger Gabby was in," said the statement on Tuesday.
Among other accusations, the law firm asserts the officers "failed to listen to Gabby, failed to investigate her injuries and the seriousness of her assault, and failed to follow their own training, policies, and Utah law."
PETITOS LAUNCH LAWSUIT
Gabby's family filed a $50million wrongful death suit against the Moab City Police Department last August, blaming its officer for "failing to protect" the van-life blogger.
They were also awarded $3 million after a wrongful death lawsuit against Laundrie's parents.
In their lawsuit against the police, the Petito family accuses Assistant Chief Braydon Palmer, attending officers Pratt and Daniel Robbins, and several other department employees of a series of "wrongful acts and neglect" which ultimately failed to protect Gabby from Laundrie, leading to her eventual death.
Those alleged wrongful acts include failing to "understand and enforce the law of the State of Utah, [and] to investigate Brian's self-evidently false claims during their interviews with him."
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The Petitos also charge that Moab police failed to "properly train the officers to investigate domestic violence situations, and to properly assess the circumstances, including identifying Brian as the primary aggressor."
The Moab Police Department has not filed a response to the lawsuit from Gabby's parents, but the agency said it stands by its officers' actions.