Gaston County law enforcement and other first responders heard Thursday from the parents of Gabby Petito, whose 2021 death sparked a national conversation about domestic violence.

Nichole Schmidt, president of the Gabby Petito Foundation and Petito's mother, said in an interview at Nellie's Southern Kitchen in Belmont that if police had asked the right questions of Petito and her then-fiancé, Brian Laundrie, during a traffic stop in Utah on Aug. 12, 2021, Petito might still be alive. An independent review found that the officers who encountered Petito and Laundrie made mistakes in how they evaluated the situation.

"When law enforcement uses a questionnaire … they can determine if somebody is at-risk, and they can connect them to services sooner. They have to be trained in a trauma infor

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