Video taken immediately after the arrest of golfing great Scottie Scheffler showed Scheffler saying he was unaware it was a Louisville police officer attempting to stop him as the officer directed traffic in the pre-dawn hours of May 17.
Detective Bryan Gillis approached Scheffler, and the golfer tried to drive away. Gillis grabbed the vehicle Scheffler was driving and received minor injuries.
Scheffler was charged with assaulting a police officer, but the charges were dropped Wednesday.
Just after his arrest, Scheffler said he believed Gillis was overly aggressive.
Scheffler, in a PGA-marked vehicle on his way to the Valhalla Golf Club for the second round of the PGA Championship attempted to go around blocked traffic stemming from an investigation of a fatal accident earlier in the morning.
In a police bodycam recording posted on X, Scheffler can be heard saying he was unaware that he was being stopped by a police officer.
The fact this cop told Scottie Scheffler that you should stop for ANYBODY who tells you to stop is LOL funny.
Unserious people.
— Kayce Smith (@KayceSmith) May 29, 2024
“As I was pulling in, my window was down, and the officer told me to stop, and as I was — first of all I did not know he was a police officer. I thought he was one of the security guards that was mistaken.”
An investigating officer interrupted. “Stop right there. Why does that matter if he’s a security guard or a police officer if somebody’s telling you to stop?”
“Yes,” Scheffler replied. “You’re right. I should have stopped.
“I did get a little bit impatient because I’m quite late for my tee time, and as he was reaching in the car, he grabbed my shoulder and hit me.”
Scheffler then said he believed the officer was “a little bit overaggressive.”
“I pulled a little bit because I was afraid. I thought he was going to start hitting me,” Scheffler “And I didn’t know who he was.
“He didn’t tell me he was a police officer. All I saw was a yellow jacket. I didn’t know what he was doing. I had no idea he was a police officer.”
The investigating officer then said Gillis was wearing a uniform and had on a yellow vest and “if someone’s telling you to stop, no matter who it is, you don’t keep going.”
“Yes sir,” Scheffler replied.
“So what happened is,” continued the investigator, “You kept going, and you took him with you … So, you took him with your car and drug him. OK? Which is not a good thing, right?
“… To make it even worse, when he asked you to get out of the car, you refused to get out of the car.”
Replied Scheffler: “I still did not — I was not aware he was a police officer. I was looking out the window of the car to try to find a police officer.”
The investigator indicated the identities of all the police at the scene should have been clear. “We’re all wearing yellow vests, so you can see us.”
Scheffler continued: “If I knew he was a police officer, I would have been much more less afraid, but panic kind of set in, and as you can see I’m still shaking because I was afraid. I didn’t know who he was.
“He didn’t say, ‘Police, get out of the car.’ He just hit me with his flashlight and yelled, ‘Get out of the car!’”
A spokesman for the Louisville mayor’s office, Scottie Ellis, confirmed that the video of Scheffler was authentic, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.
Scheffler’s statements came after he was read his Miranda rights, the Courier Journal said.
There was criticism of how Louisville police handled the incident. Gillis was reprimanded for failing to have a bodycam in operation, the U.K.’s Daily Mail said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
