911 call, bodycam video show Manatee County official moments after suspected DUI crash
Video and audio footage show Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse slur his words and struggle to answer questions in a recorded 911 call and deputy’s bodycam footage that captured the moments immediately after his alleged DUI crash.
Around 7:30 p.m. April 20, Kruse crashed his Ford F-150 pickup truck head-on into a tree just inside the subdivision where he lives.
The commissioner has not been arrested in connection with the crash, and denies he was drinking.
The Bradenton Herald on Thursday obtained copies of the 911 call, body camera footage, reports and other records from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in response to a public records request. The Herald previously reported on heavily redacted documents linked to the DUI investigation.
In bodycam footage around the time of the crash, a sheriff’s office lieutenant interviewed Kruse and his wife, Jessica. Sitting in the back of his wife’s SUV, Kruse slurred his words while answering the lieutenant’s questions.
In a supplemental report, the lieutenant wrote that he observed Kruse with “watery eyes, slurred speech, and was in an overall confused state.”
Speaking with another deputy who happened to drive past the scene, the lieutenant shared his suspicion that Kruse was drunk when he crashed his truck into a tree on the wrong side of the road.
“The dude freaking crashed into a tree. He’s drunk,” he said. “I just can’t do a DUI because no one can put him behind the wheel. When I got here, he was in his wife’s car.”
Reached for comment Thursday afternoon, Kruse denied drinking before the crash.
“No, I was not. I was in a head-on collision with a tree and had an airbag go off,” Kruse said.
“At the end of the day, it’s under investigation and I have to let that run its course. The sheriff is good at his job and he’s very well-respected. They’re going to conduct their investigation and when they come to their conclusion, I will deal with it at that time,” he added, declining to provide further comment on the investigation. “It makes no sense for this to become a narrative within the media.”
Kruse recently told the Business Observer that the investigation was “entirely political” and “just a witch hunt.”
Kruse, 46, also gave conflicting statements about the cause of the crash. During an interview with the sheriff’s office, Kruse said that he “cut a curb” when another driver sped past him, but investigators found that he told his insurance company that he swerved to avoid a small animal.
“Review of this traffic crash revealed additional evidence that was not available on the evening of April 20th.” Sheriff Rick Wells said in a statement to the Herald. “It was important for us to examine this additional evidence and determine who was in physical control of the vehicle when the crash occurred, and to what extent the driver was impaired.”
A 911 call revealed other key details related to the crash. While deputies on the scene could not prove that Kruse was driving the vehicle when it struck the tree, the automated safety system, Ford Sync, helped provide evidence that Kruse was driving.
It was the safety system that automatically called 911, sending a dispatcher the location of the crash and an open call line inside the vehicle.
A dispatcher immediately asks if he is OK and Kruse is heard slurring, “No, it was that somebody swerved in front of me and I swerved out and hit something, but I am OK.”
Kruse insists he is OK when asked if there are any injuries, but after answering the first few questions becomes silent for about a minute as the dispatcher tries to get his attention.
Seconds later, his wife’s voice is heard saying, “Get in my car. Babe. Hey.”
On the evening of the crash, the lieutenant explained to Kruse’s wife that the commissioner would have been arrested on a DUI charge if a witness was available to prove he was driving the vehicle.
“I know who your husband is, OK, and this could have turned out very badly. He needs to be more cognizant of that,” the lieutenant told Kruse’s wife. “I am a trained traffic investigator. There is no reason he should have been driving.”
A recommendation from the sheriff’s office that Kruse be charged with driving under the influence has been sent to the State Attorney’s Office who will determine whether or not to formally file the charge.
The sheriff’s office investigation was complete as of Thursday morning, sheriff’s office spokesman Randy Warren said. All evidence in the case has been handed over to prosecutors.
Kruse was elected in 2020 to a four-year term on the Manatee Board of County Commissioners.
