Hulls explained that they knew only what Petito and Laundrie shared during their brief interaction—vest-cam footage from the interaction is about an hour long—and they could only go off the information that was presented, explaining that the officers couldn’t “let our emotions drive the decision.”
“It’s easy to say that when you can break down a video, minute by minute, and judge it, versus being in the moment where we saw minor injuries and two people that were apologetic,” Hulls said of the criticism that she and the other responding officers are facing.
Nonetheless, Hulls feels bad that she couldn’t have done “something more” to help Petito. “There are so many circumstances where you wish it had gone a certain way, and if you get stuck with the ‘would have, could have, should have,’ you can’t do this job,” Hulls was humbled. “You got to learn from it and keep going, otherwise you’re not going to be help for the next Gabby.”