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Gabby Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie had an argument over the phone and argued “aggressively” in front of onlookers outside a Utah store last month, according to a new witness statement.
“Something just didn’t seem to be working,” said a witness identified as Chris of the high-profile August 12 brawl between Petito and Laundrie in Moab which led to a 911 call and police intervention in the midst of it. their doomed tour of the western national parks.
At one point, Petito reportedly asked Laundrie, “Why do you have to be so mean? “
Chris notes in his statement that Petito, 22, appeared to hit Laundrie, 23, during a fight with a cell phone.
The witness offers a different perspective than the person who called the fight to 911 and said he saw Laundrie apparently punching the Long Island native.
Petito’s remains were found in Wyoming on Sunday – the victim of a homicide after he went missing late last month.
The couple had an argument over the phone at Moonflower Community Cooperative just before 5 p.m., Chris wrote in a statement to the Moab Police Department.
“They were talking to each other aggressively and something seemed weird,” the statement said. “I think the man picked up the woman’s phone (sic). It looked like he didn’t want her in the white van.
He climbed into the driver’s seat and she followed him.
“At one point, she was hitting him on the arm and / or face and trying to get into the van,” the statement read. “I had no idea how bad it was – it was hard to tell if it was some sort of play fight, but from my perspective, something definitely didn’t look right.”
“Why do you have to be so mean? Petito asks Laundrie, according to the statement. She climbed on top of him in the passenger seat of the van, according to the witness.
It was like he was trying to leave her and pick up his phone, Chris said.
“I don’t know, but I wanted to help,” he said.
The separate 911 call led to the police arresting the couple. Officers who responded said “the man tried to create distance” by telling Petito to walk around and calm down – which led to Petito punching him.
“He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed against him and the van, he tried to lock her outside and succeeded except for her driver’s door, she l ‘opened and made its way towards him and into the vehicle before it started, ”the report said.
Laundrie returned home to North Port, Florida without Petito on September 1. His girlfriend was reported missing to police on September 11, and Laundrie went missing amid a nationwide search for Petito.
Police confirmed his death was a homicide on Tuesday as the search for Laundrie, a person of interest in the case, continued.
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