The Scottie Scheffler arrest saga has taken a twist with the news that there isn’t any bodycam footage available from the incident.
The World No.1 was arrested after he drove to Valhalla to prepare for the second round of the PGA Championship, only to find police directing traffic following an accident near the course, which tragically took the life of a vendor at the tournament.
Scheffler was later charged with “second-degree assault of a police office, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic,” with an arraignment hearing set for Tuesday.
The Masters champion has insisted the incident was a “misunderstanding.” However, if he was hoping bodycam footage would clear his name, he appears to be out of luck after Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed there isn’t any available.
He told WDRB News: "The officer did not have a bodycam footage turned on during the incident. We will release the footage that we have. We did not have any to my knowledge. We have not discovered any video of the initial contact between officer Gillis and Mr. Scheffler."
However, Greenberg did confirm there's footage from a fixed camera placed across the street of when the arrest took place, which will be released soon.
After the incident that saw Scheffler briefly spent time in a jail cell before returning for his second round, the arrest citation was published, which accuses the American of refusing to comply with instructions, and also states he “accelerated forward" which dragged the officer directing traffic, Bryan Gullis, “to the ground.”
Following the incident, Scheffler released a statement, which read: “This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers. It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.”
After a typically assured round of 66 to leave him in contention for a third Major title, Scheffler spoke to the media, where he reiterated the incident had been down to a misunderstanding and explained he expected the matter to be dealt with swiftly. He said: “Yeah, like I said, it was just a huge misunderstanding this morning. That'll get resolved I think fairly quickly."
Scheffler's lawyer, Steve Romines, said: "He was going into Valhalla to work out and get ready for his tee time. They were redirecting traffic, he held his media credential out and was going in like they had instructed them to and, apparently, there had been a traffic accident down the road that changed the traffic patterns and he was unaware of that.
"I think the officer that was directing traffic was not part of... the event traffic detail, so that's where the miscommunication arose and that's why we are here. They are allowed to go through and that's why they have the credentials. They are waved through, so unaware he proceeded like they had been instructed."
