Florida police under fire as video of Black man punched, dragged by deputies during traffic stop goes viral

JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF’S OFFICE

By Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — A cell phone video showing a White police officer in Jacksonville, Florida, striking a Black man in the face during a February traffic stop before officers dragged the driver from his car has sparked outrage online as conflicting accounts of the incident have emerged.

The video, which 22-year-old driver William McNeil Jr. took from inside his car, is a clear depiction of brutality, say his civil rights lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, and comes as law enforcement officials – from masked ICE agents to local police officers – have been scrutinized for their use of force, particularly against people of color.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office argues the video doesn’t show the full context of the situation.

“Yes, there absolutely was force used by the arresting officers, and yes, that force is ugly,” Sheriff TK Waters said Monday at a news conference. “Just because force is ugly does not mean it’s unlawful or contrary to policy.”

The sheriff said he wouldn’t stay silent while “facts and information are buried to advance an anti-police agenda.”

McNeil, along with his family and legal team, are calling on the sheriff to immediately terminate the officer who struck the young man, Crump told CNN on Wednesday.

“The sheriff cannot justify this. He cannot condone this. You must condemn this,” Crump said. “I mean, there is no way you can say this reflects your policies, your training, your values. This is very disturbing on every level.”

Here’s what we know:

What videos show

Police bodycam video released Monday shows McNeil opening his car door to speak to an officer, who tells him he was pulled over for driving without his headlights or seat belt on. Florida law states drivers must use seat belts while operating a car and use headlights from sunset to sunrise and in cases of rain, smoke or fog.

“It’s daylight, I don’t need the lights. And it’s not weather – it’s not raining,” McNeil says in the video.

McNeil asked the officer to call his supervisor, refused to give him his license, and closed his door. He locked it as the officer asked him to step out of the vehicle, bodycam video shows.

“Open the door and exit, or we are going to break the window,” the officer says as another patrol car pulls up in front of McNeil’s vehicle.

McNeil was warned seven times he was under arrest and needed to open his door, Waters said.

The video from inside McNeil’s car begins with him sitting in the driver’s seat, talking to another officer through the passenger side window. He asks the officer to show him the law stating that he must have his headlights on.

One officer then says he’s going ahead with breaking the window, according to body camera footage. “All right, go for it,” a second police officer is heard saying.

Seconds later, the driver’s window is smashed in, McNeil is punched in the face, and officers open the door and pull him to the ground next to his car, striking his face again, McNeil’s video shows.

McNeil’s lawyers say he sustained a tooth fracture, concussion and a traumatic brain injury. He also had cognitive impairment and short-term memory deficits after the traffic stop, they added.

The body camera footage released Monday didn’t show the initial strike between the arresting officer and McNeil, Waters admitted.

McNeil was arrested following the incident on February 19 and charged with resisting a police officer without violence, driving on a suspended license and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, Waters said. The next day, he pleaded guilty to the resisting and suspended license charges.

Thrown punches and a large knife

D. Bowers, the arresting officer who pulled McNeil over, made no mention of McNeil being punched in his police report. He wrote that the suspect, McNeil, refused to comply, which led him to break the window to open the driver’s door.

“Physical force was applied to the suspect and he was taken to the ground,” Bowers continued.

A second officer, however, described in a separate report six punches to McNeil’s leg before he stopped resisting, according to the Associated Press.

“He simply asks for a supervisor and then they break his window and beat him yet, somehow, the report failed to mention that,” McNeil’s lawyers said in a statement.

Bowers’ report also claimed McNeil was “reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting,” as he was removed from the car. Deputies found a knife while they searched McNeil’s vehicle after taking him into custody, according to police reports.

Crump and Daniels said Bowers’ report that McNeil reached toward the knife was a “fabrication,” according to the AP.

“The only time he moves at all is when the officer knocks him over by punching him in his face,” they said. “Then this young man calmly sits back straight and holds his empty hands up.”

When asked Monday about what he saw in the footage, Waters, the sheriff, said he couldn’t see where McNeil’s hands were.

An investigation five months later

Waters said McNeil hadn’t filed a complaint or shared his video with the department before it was released on social media. Had he done so, he said, the department would have started an investigation.

The sheriff said the cell phone footage showed there were aspects of the arrest the department needed to investigate, but said he assumed the video was “intended to inflame the public.”

“The context of this video should tell you everything you need to know,” he said.

A criminal investigation at the sheriff’s office began Sunday, as soon as it became aware of the viral footage, Waters said, adding the State Attorney’s Office determined Monday no officers involved in the arrest violated any criminal laws.

An administrative review over whether the deputies violated department policies is also ongoing, Waters said.

The arresting officer has been “stripped of his law enforcement authority” pending the outcome of the administrative review, according to the sheriff.

McNeil’s attorney Daniels said he was disgusted but not surprised by the actions of the officers.

“The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has a long history of this kind of needless violence and brutality,” Daniels said in a news release.

“It should be obvious to anyone watching this video that William McNeil wasn’t a threat to anyone,” Crump added. “He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights, and they beat him for it.”

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CNN’s Jillian Sykes, Isabel Rosales, Meridith Edwards, Devon Sayers, and Jason Morris contributed to this report.