Body cam footage of Bryan Kohberger traffic stop

PULLMAN, Washington (Courtesy of Idaho Statesman) — Moscow defendant Bryan Kohberger talked his way out of a traffic ticket for running a red light in Pullman, Wash., the month before the November killings, newly released police body-cam footage obtained by the Idaho Statesman shows.

The 9 1/2-minute video shows a Washington State University campus police officer pull over and park behind Kohberger in a campus parking lot on Oct. 14, 2022. Kohberger was seated behind the wheel of his white 2015 Hyundai Elantra with a Pennsylvania license plate.

WSU Police Officer Isobel Luengas approached the driver-side window and explained the infraction before asking for Kohberger’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance.

“I think you know why I stopped you. You ran the red light,” Luengas told Kohberger, who explained he was stuck in the middle of the intersection. “I was behind you the whole time,” she responded.

Kohberger, then a WSU graduate student living in Pullman, sought the specifics of the law, detailing how he’s from rural Pennsylvania. He wasn’t aware of the potential violation, he said.

“We actually don’t have, like, crosswalks,” Kohberger said. “There’s a little bit more leeway as well … like there’s one white line and there’s another one in front, like, there’s a certain margin from which you can actually kind of put your vehicle and place your vehicle.

“I’m just curious about the law. I don’t mean to disagree with anything,” he added.

Along with video of another traffic stop of Kohberger in August in Moscow, homicide investigators cited the WSU traffic stop footage in a probable cause affidavit for Kohberger’s December arrest in eastern Pennsylvania. They noted that the officer’s body-cam video depicted him as the driver and sole occupant of a white sedan with a Pennsylvania plate.

A Statesman public records request for the body-cam footage of Kohberger’s Aug. 21, 2022, traffic stop in Idaho for driving without a seat belt was previously denied by the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, citing its potential to impede a person’s right to a fair trial. No written report on the stop exists, the department’s records manager said.

In the new video, Luengas noted that Kohberger’s registration was current, with an expiration of Nov. 22, 2022, which is the day after Kohberger’s date of birth. Citing vehicle registration data, police said Kohberger registered his car in Washington on Nov. 18 — five days after the homicides in Moscow took the lives of U of I students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

Police body-cam footage from Indiana on Dec. 15 showed Kohberger, 28, driving the white sedan, with his father in the passenger seat, during two traffic stops within 10 minutes of each other on eastbound Interstate 70. The car had a Washington license plate as they drove cross-country to eastern Pennsylvania during Kohberger’s winter break from school.

Fifteen days later, on Dec. 30, police arrested Kohberger at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.