Mr. Kohberger’s father, Michael Kohberger, visited him in December, and they drove across the country from the W.S.U. campus in Pullman, Wash., to their home in eastern Pennsylvania. During that trip, they were pulled over twice on Dec. 15 for tailgating; in both traffic stops, the officers let the men off with a warning.
There is no indication that the police in Indiana had any idea that Mr. Kohberger would be arrested for the murders, or that they were aware of the police in Moscow, Idaho, saying that a white Hyundai Elantra had been seen near the crime scene on the night of the murders.
During the first stop, at about 10:42 a.m., a deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department pulled Mr. Kohberger and his father over along Interstate 70, just east of Indianapolis. The body camera footage released on Wednesday captured the deputy asking where the two were headed. In response, Mr. Kohberger’s father said that they were coming from Washington and had been talking about the police standoff that was unfolding near the Washington State campus that day.
Mr. Kohberger’s father told the officer that there had been a “mass shooting.” He was corrected by his son, who said, “We don’t know if it was a mass shooting,” and referred to a SWAT team being called for the standoff. “It’s horrifying,” Mr. Kohberger’s father said in the video. That incident involved a man who the police later said had barricaded himself in an apartment and threatened to kill his roommates before a police officer shot him to death.
At another point in the video, the father said, “We’re slightly punchy because we’ve been driving for hours.”
After about three minutes, the deputy said, “Do me a favor and don’t follow too close, OK?” and then returned Mr. Kohberger’s driver’s license and let them go.
Just five minutes later, Mr. Kohberger and his father were pulled over again, this time by an Indiana state trooper who also said that they were tailgating. The audio from the trooper’s body camera is obscured by traffic noise, but Mr. Kohberger and his father could be heard telling the officer that they were just stopped minutes earlier. Again, the father brought up the incident that morning at Washington State. The trooper wished them a safe trip and let them go with a warning.
