Petito was likely “a long-term victim of domestic violence,” the report acknowledged, but it suggested that officers could not have known that from the information they had at the time.
"If this case was handled flawlessly, would it have changed anything?" Ratcliffe wrote in his report."Nobody knows."Police camera video shows Brian Laundrie talking to an officer in Moab, Utah, on Aug. 12, 2021.
He described the ways in which Laundrie tried to control Petito's movements and said that the act of grabbing Petito's face — which survivors told BuzzFeed News was— was probably"his attempt to 'make' Gabby calm down or 'make' her shut up." Based on his review of the body-worn camera footage, incident reports, and interviews with Pratt, Robbins, and Assistant Moab Police Chief Braydon Palmer, Ratcliffe said Petito was determined to be"the predominant aggressor" in this incident. Petito told the officers that she and Laundrie had been arguing all morning; when she saw the sirens as police tried to pull them over, she hit Laundrie to get his attention, causing the car to swerve.
The officers in this incident had probable cause to arrest Petito, according to the report. But they misinterpreted the state's statute on assault as requiring intent when that was not necessary. They also miscategorized the incident as"disorderly conduct" when it should have been recorded as a domestic violence incident, Ratcliffe said.
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