Scottie Scheffler arrest officer disciplined for not having bodycam turned on
A police officer who arrested world number one golfer Scottie Scheffler has been disciplined for not having his bodycam on during the incident.
Scheffler was dramatically detained ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship last Friday in Louisville, Kentucky, after he reportedly tried to drive around a traffic jam outside Valhalla golf club caused by a fatal accident.
The 27-year-old later said he was “rattled” by the experience, which saw him charged and a police mugshot released of him wearing an orange jail-issue jumpsuit.
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Moment golfer detained by police
Louisville Detective Bryan Gillis has now been subject to “corrective action” for failing to activate his body-worn camera during the pre-dawn encounter in which he claimed he was “dragged/knocked down by the driver”.
Police have already released a video from a street camera that appears to show Scheffler’s car turning into the golf club entrance, prompting an officer to run toward the vehicle and apparently strike it as it comes to a stop.
The camera is too far away to capture the full details of the incident.
Another video released by authorities from a police vehicle dashcam shows Scheffler in handcuffs as he is taken away by officers.
Scheffler was arrested on charges that he injured Gillis and disobeyed commands, but the golfer said “he never intended to disregard any of the instructions” and that the incident was caused by a “big misunderstanding”.
Scheffler’s attorney Steve Romines has said his client was not at fault.
“Our position is the same as it was last Friday, Scottie Scheffler didn’t do anything wrong, we’re not interested in settling the case,” Mr Romines said.
“We’ll either try it or it will be dismissed.”
Police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel says the officer violated policy. Pic: AP
The city’s police chief pointed out officers are expected to maintain their body-worn cameras in a “constant state of operational readiness”.
Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, head of the Louisville Metro Police Department, said: “Detective Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera but did not.
“His failure to do so is a violation of LMPD policy on uniforms and equipment.”
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An internal investigation report said Detective Gillis should have at least had his camera on in standby mode while directing traffic before the incident with Scheffler.
Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said the officer had “received corrective action” for the breach.
He had to complete a “failure to record” form as required by policy, was “counselled by a member of his command” and a “performance observation” was completed.
Steve Romines argues his client ‘didn’t do anything wrong’. Pic AP
Detective Gillis had said he was requested to respond to a fatal accident at Valhalla when he saw Scheffler’s vehicle “travelling in the opposing lanes coming at me.”
Gillis, who approached Scheffler’s car on foot, wrote in an arrest report that the driver “refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging” him to the ground.
He said his uniform trousers were damaged in the fall and he was taken to the hospital for his injuries.
Just hours later, after being carted off in handcuffs and a spell in jail, Scheffler returned to the golf course and eventually finished the tournament tied in eighth place on Sunday, which was enough to secure prize money of about $520,000 (£409,000).
He is due to return to Louisville on 3 June to face four charges, including second-degree felony assault of a police officer.
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Louisville police’s current body camera policy was introduced following controversy in 2020 after officers shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed during a botched drug raid.
At the time, the plain-clothes officers who served the warrant and fired at Taylor were not required to wear body cameras.
The new policy required all officers to turn on the camera “prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities and encounters.”
The police chief at the time of Taylor’s death was later fired when officers at the scene of another fatal shooting failed to turn on their body-worn cameras.
A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.
The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.
The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.
Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.
Pic: AP
The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.
Pic: AP
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.
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One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.
The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.
The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.
“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”
It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.
“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.
The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.
“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.
Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).
A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.
The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.
Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.
California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.
A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.
James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.
James Comey later removed the Instagram post. File pic: AP
He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.
Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.
“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.
Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”
Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.
The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.
“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.
Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.
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Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.
While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.
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