The arraignment of top golfer Scottie Scheffler has been delayed for almost two weeks after his apprehension on accusations of assaulting a police officer and disobeying traffic signals while in Louisville, Kentucky, for the PGA Championship.
According to the police investigation, the sportsman allegedly drove past a police roadblock and hit an officer with his car on Friday morning when he was traveling close to the Valhalla Golf Club. Hours before he was scheduled to tee off in the PGA Championship second round, he was arrested.
According to authorities, Scheffler, 27, was first supposed to be arraigned Tuesday morning on accusations of third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disobeying traffic signals from an officer directing traffic in addition to the felony charge of second-degree assault of a police officer. A new date for the arraignment is June 3 at 9 a.m., according to court records available online.
An hour or so after a fatal accident close to the golf course, Scheffler was taken into custody. According to a statement made by the Louisville Metro Police Department, a man was struck by a shuttle bus at around five in the morning on Friday while attempting to cross a road close to the course hosting the PGA Championship. John Mills, a volunteer with the PGA Championship Tour, was named as the victim.
Scheffler reportedly drove by the on-site police officers because of the bottlenecks and confusion surrounding the accident, according to sources from ESPN. According to the police report, Scheffler “accelerated forward,” reportedly dragging the detective to the ground, when the officer ordered him to halt. The policeman reported having “pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee” before being sent to the hospital.
The event was referred to by Scheffler as a “big misunderstanding.”
“This morning, I followed police officers’ instructions,” Scheffler said on social media. “It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.”
Scheffler was obeying directions from a single officer, Romines told WHAS, and there was a “miscommunication” with the officer who tried to stop him.
“In the confusion, Scottie is alleged to have disregarded a different officer’s traffic signals resulting in these charges,” Romines stated in the statement. “Several eyewitnesses have attested to the fact that he was acting in accordance with instructions and did nothing improper. When told to stop, he did so right away, and he never used his car to attack an officer again.”
“(A) police officer attempted to attach himself to Scheffler’s car, and Scheffler then stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla,” said ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington on social media after seeing the fight between Scheffler and police. Scheffler was then yelled at by the policeman to exit the vehicle.
The policeman pushed Scheffler against the automobile as soon as he got out of the car and handcuffed him.”
According to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, there is no body camera evidence of the interaction between Scheffler and police on Saturday. He did, however, point out that there is another angle of the incident—from a “fixed camera” across the street—that will be made public in the next few days.
Scheffler’s arrest is the subject of an internal investigation by the Louisville Metro Police Department, Greenberg said to WHAS on Monday.
“If there are violations of policies that took place, they will be very clear with that and we will deal with that appropriately,” Greenberg was quoted as saying.
About an hour before his Friday tee time of 10:08 a.m., Scheffler was sprung out of jail and made his way back to the golf course. In the PGA Championship, the second major of the year, he ultimately tied for seventh place.
At the press conference on Sunday after the championship round, he commented, “Saturday morning, I think it finally hit me what happened,” characterizing the competition as “hectic.” “I did my best to leave that behind me and come out here and compete and do what I love.”
