Louisville police have released additional video footage of pro golfer Scottie Scheffler’s arrest outside last week’s PGA Championship.
The Louisville Metro Police Department released extensive video footage from two different cameras – a pole camera across the street from the arrest and a police car dash cam.
However, Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said Det. Bryan Gillis, the arresting officer, did not have his body camera activated when directing traffic outside the golf course, meaning there is no footage of the “initial interaction” between the officer and Scheffler.
Gwinn-Villaroel told reporters that not turning on a body camera is a breach of department policy and Gillis “has received corrective action for his policy violation.”
Neither the police chief nor the mayor, however, indicated that the charges against Scheffler would be dropped.
“We respect the judicial process,” Gwinn-Villaroel said, “and we will allow the courts to proceed accordingly.”
Scheffler’s lawyer, Steven Romines, told The Athletic that the public can expect to see pole camera footage at that time and promised the video will be consistent with Scheffler’s description of the incident.
Scheffler, a Masters champion and the world’s No. 1 golfer, was arrested last Friday while on the way to the PGA Championship in Maryland, after he failed to follow police orders during an investigation into a pedestrian fatality.
The incident took place outside the entrance to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., around 6 a.m., shortly after a man who was working the golf tournament was struck and killed by a shuttle bus.
Police had stopped traffic, resulting in a sea of red and blue flashing lights.
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ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who witnessed the incident, said Scheffler was attempting to drive around the scene of the crash using a median when an officer ordered him to stop. Scheffler, Darlington said, continued to drive slowly toward Valhalla’s entrance.
Darlington, posting to X, detailed a dramatic scene, writing that “the police officer attempted to attach himself to Scheffler’s car, and Scheffler then stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla.”
The officer, wrote Darlington, then “began to scream” at the golfer to get out of his car. When Scheffler complied, the officer “shoved Scheffler against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.”
Scheffler’s lawyer, Steve Romines, says the arrest was “a big misunderstanding.”
In the three hours that followed, Scheffler was detained, taken to the local jail for a mug shot in an orange jail uniform, and released. He was back at Valhalla in golf clothes with just under an hour before the tournament’s second round began.
Scheffler was charged with multiple crimes: second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic.
Romines told ESPN that Scheffler was just doing as he was told, unaware of the accident, and that the arresting officer wasn’t part of the regular traffic detail posted outside the golf club.
In a statement released later that morning, Scheffler wrote that he had been “proceeding as directed by police officers” and that the incident stemmed from a “big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.”
On Tuesday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that the city’s police department will investigate the actions of the officers involved in Scheffler’s arrest to determine whether they followed proper protocols. He said they will also investigate why Gillis did not have his body camera turned on.
“I think that’s critically important that we do that, not just in high-profile events like took place on Friday, but on a regular basis,” Greenberg said at the news conference, according to Golf.com. “And if policies are not being followed, there will be transparency about that. There will be action taken.”
This week, CNN reported that high-ranking law enforcement officials in Kentucky have “privately voiced concerns that the felony charge against Scheffler is excessive,” citing an anonymous source close to the investigation.
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