Brian Laundrie posed an ’emotional and mental threat’ to girlfriend Gabby Petito in the weeks before her murder, the girl’s parents have claimed in a bombshell new court filing.
The charge was leveled by lawyers for Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt on Wednesday, and centers around a domestic dispute the 22-year-old travel blogger had with her boyfriend in Moab, Utah, two weeks before her death in 2021.
Filed in Utah’s Seventh District Court, the suit cited transcripts of an interview between a Moab police officer who pulled over the couple after receiving a call from Petito that claimed she was being attacked by her 23-year-old boyfriend.
The suit – which seeks damages in excess of $50 million – names this officer, Eric Pratt as a defendant, charging that both he and his department did not uphold their duties as peace officers by failing to an arrest, despite Pratt later telling other cops Laundrie raised ‘more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.’
A Utah statute requires all officers to make an arrest or issue a citation in all domestic incidents. Upon being questioned about the incident during a recent outside investigation, Pratt conceded to police that he, at the time, viewed Laundrie as a threat to Petito’s well-being.
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Filed in Utah’s Seventh District Court, the suit cited transcripts of an interview between a Moab police officer who pulled over the couple after receiving a call from Petito that claimed she was being attacked by 23-year-old boyfriend Brian Laundrie, who killed himself shortly after
Pictured: Gabby Petito crying and visibly distressed as cops questioned her during the traffic stop. The lawsuit claims it was clear the police failed to help the frightened 22-year-old
‘I thought he was an emotional threat to her,’ the officer, who still works at the force, allegedly told a Price police captain during an independent review of the incident, which launched due to the lack of arrest. ‘I thought he was a mental threat to her.’
Transcripts of the interview produced by Petito’s parents further revealed how Pratt failed to adhere to proper police policy by cutting Laundrie loose – despite telling Price Police captain Brandon Ratcliffe the suspected killer showed ‘more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.’
Pratt allegedly told Ratcliffe that Laundrie was ‘a weird, not healthy dude that ‘looked unsavory,’ the lawsuit claims.
Body camera footage of the incident had already showed that Petito had been visibly shaken throughout the encounter with Pratt, telling him and officers Laundrie had grabbed her face while gesturing toward her neck.
A picture shared by lawyers for Gabby’s family this week, who are building a lawsuit against the Moab police department, would how the bruising Petito sustained before the traffic stop.
Despite coming face-to-face with both Petito and Laundrie during the encounter, Pratt seemed to not even view Laundrie as a suspect, despite the 911 call. The bodycam clip shows Gabby wearing the same clothes as in the selfie.
In the transcript of Pratt’s interview quoted in the new filing, the veteran cop took this a step further, telling Ratcliffe while citing his 16 years’ experience as a police office, that he did not actually Petito had committed an assault on Laundrie.
Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt (pictured) originally filed the lawsuit against Chiropter and Roberta Laundrie earlier this year claiming the couple knew that their son murdered Gabby and refusing to tell them the location of her remains
A picture was shared by lawyers for Gabby’s family, who are building a lawsuit against police in Moab, Utah, shows bruising Petito sustained before the traffic stop. The since amended suit alleges police failed to deal with the incident properly
‘I took my 16 years of experience, and said I believed Gabby based on the totality of circumstances and based on what she appears physically capable of and based off what I saw him doing and acting the way he was acting, I don’t think she assaulted him,’ he said, according to the amended lawsuit.
Pratt went on to tell Ratcliffe that he thought Laundrie was ‘a weird, not healthy dude, and that was clear.’
‘I thought he was an emotional threat to her,’ he allegedly said, according to the complaint. ‘I thought he was a mental threat to her.’
