THE Moab police chief has gone on leave after criticism over how his department handled an incident between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie, as claims that cops broke the law emerge.

Chief Bret Edge invoked the Family Medical Leave Act on Monday to request the time off.

However, it is still unclear if his request for time off is related to the Petito case, as reported by Fox13.

The department is facing backlash over their response on August 12 when a 911 caller claimed to have seen Laundrie hitting Petito.

“We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” said the caller.

But when police reached the scene, one of the officers said that it was Petito who was the aggressor and "began slapping" Laundrie during an argument.

Petito admitted hitting Laundrie, who told the officers with a smile that he had pushed Gabby several times in a bid to fend her off, body cam footage shows.

Officers noticed scratch marks on Laundrie’s hands, arm and torso.

The vlogger was quizzed by cops about what she was trying to achieve by striking Laundrie.

She said: “I was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down."

In the police report, Laundrie was listed as the victim and Petito as the suspect.

The officers decided to separate the couple, sending Laundrie to a hotel and leaving Petito with the van, and allowing them to continue their trip the next day.

They decided the situation was a "mental health crisis" instead of a domestic assault.

However, Utah law says officers must make an arrest or issue a citation if they have "probable cause to believe that an act of domestic violence has been committed," per Fox News.

According to dispatch audio of the 911 call that lead police to stop the couple, the officers were informed that a witness had seen Laundrie striking Petito.

"RP (reporting party) states seeing a male hit a female, domestic," the dispatcher states in the audio obtained by Fox13. "He got into a white Ford Transit van, has a black ladder on the back, Florida plate."

City officials have launched an investigation into the department's handling of the situation.

Criminal defense attorney Phillip Holloway told Fox News that he believes the cops could have saved Gabby's life had they acted differently during the call.

He said: “An eyewitness saw Brian using physical violence against Gabby and other information suggested that she was also involved in some type of mutual combat [with Laundrie].

"At a bare minimum, the investigation on the side of the road developed, I believe, probable cause that would have been sufficient to charge one or both of them with some type of domestic violence."

We pay for your stories!

Do you have a story for The US Sun team?

Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552.

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS

Source: Read Full Article