Scottie Scheffler arrest: All charges dropped against world No. 1 as new video of traffic incident emerges

Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped all charges against Scottie Scheffler stemming from a traffic incident in Louisville ahead of the second round of the 2024 PGA Championship. Scheffler had been charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer after moving his car forward during a heated incident outside Valhalla Golf Club.

“Based upon the totality of the evidence, my office cannot move forward in the prosecution of the charges filed against Mr. Scheffler,” said Mike O’Connell, Jefferson County Attorney. “Mr. Scheffler’s characterization that this was ‘a big misunderstanding’ is corroborated by the evidence. The evidence we reviewed supports the conclusion that Detective Gillis was concerned for public safety at the scene when he initiated contact with Mr. Scheffler, however, Mr. Scheffler’s actions and the evidence surrounding their exchange during this misunderstanding do not satisfy the elements of any criminal offenses.”

The decision comes one week after the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department announced that arresting officer Bryan Gillis had “received corrective action” for failing to activate his body camera before performing law-enforcement actions as is required by policy. That spawned an internal investigation into whether proper police protocol was followed in the arrest of Scheffler.

LMPD released two videos of Scheffler’s arrest — one from a fixed pole camera located across the street and another from a police vehicle’s dashboard camera. Footage from the videos show Gillis running toward Scheffler’s vehicle and banging his flashlight on the driver side window as the 2024 Masters champion is turning into the entrance of Valhalla. Both failed to capture the initial interaction between the two.

The same day those videos were released publicly, a third was posted to Facebook of Scheffler’s conversation with an officer in the police car during his arrest. It was not uncovered widely until Wednesday. 

Scheffler explained to the officer that he mistook the person stopping him as security guard and did not realize he was a member of the police: “All I saw was a yellow jacket.” Then he admitted his impatience in the moment given he was “quite late for my tee time.” Scheffler also claimed the arresting officer “grabbed my shoulder and hit me” after reaching in the car without identifying himself as police.

“This was an unfortunate misunderstanding,” Scheffler said Wednesday in a statement. “I hold no ill will toward Officer Gillis. I wish to put this incident behind me and move on, and I hope he will do the same. Police officers have a difficult job and I hold them in high regard. This was a severe miscommunication in a chaotic situation.”

According to the arrest report, the road on which Scheffler’s incident occurred was closed in both directions following a fatal accident from earlier that morning. 

Scheffler allegedly “refused to comply” with Gillis’ instructions, leading Scheffler to continue moving his vehicle forward with Gillis claiming he was dragged to the ground by the PGA Championship courtesy car. The officer received medical treatment after he  “suffered pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee,” and his uniform pants, valued at approximately $80, were “damaged beyond repair.”

Throughout this ordeal, Scheffler’s defense attorney, Steven Romines, has insisted his client did no wrong. He insisted there was zero interest in settling the case. Prepared to either go to trial or have the case dismissed, Romines and Scheffler have seen the latter come to fruition.

“We were pleased that the case was dismissed today. Obviously, dismissed with prejudice, which is something that we required,” Romines said. “We were prepared to go forward and litigate this matter. We were also prepared to litigate the case civilly. … Whenever Scottie had to appear in court, we were going to begin the litigation regarding the civil matter. He does not wish to do that. He wants to move on.”