Witness: Angry words & hitting
Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, fought over a phone and argued “aggressively” in front of onlookers outside a Utah store last month, a newly surfaced witness statement says.
“Something seemed off,” a witness identified only as Chris said in a written statement of the Aug. 12 tussle between Petito and Laundrie in Moab that led to a 911 call and police intervention in the midst of the couple’s ill-fated tour of national parks out west.
Chris noted in his statement that Petito, 22, appeared to be hitting Laundrie, 23, during a fight over a cellphone.
The argument took place at the Moonflower Community Cooperative just before 5 p.m., Chris wrote in the statement for the Moab Police Department.
“They were talking aggressively @ each other & something seemed off,” the statement reads. “I think the male took the females (sic) phone. It appeared that he didn’t want her in the white van.”
Laundrie got into the driver’s seat and Petito attempted to climb over him into the front passenger seat, according to Chris’ statement
“At one point she was punching him in the arm and/or face & trying to get into the van,” the statement said. “I wasn’t sure how serious this was – it was hard to tell if they were sort of play fighting, but from my point of view something definitely didn’t seem right.”
“Why do you have to be so mean?” Petito asked Laundrie, the statement said.
It was as if he was trying to leave her and take her phone, Chris said, adding, “Not sure but wanted to help out.”
A conflicting 911 call about the incident indicated that it was Laundrie who had become violent.
“We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” the caller said, adding, “And then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.”
Cops responding to that call pulled the van over a short time later.
Video of the inside of the van made by a police bodycam during the stop shows the couple’s belongings messily strewn throughout the back.