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A newly released video of a February traffic stop showing officers in Jacksonville, Florida, arresting a man after one of them broke his car window and hit him in the face has prompted an investigation into the officers' use of force.
William McNeil Jr. posted the video he had recorded to social media on Sunday, saying he was pulled over on Feb. 19. In the video, an officer from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office tells McNeil he was pulled over because his headlights were off. McNeil, 22, tells the officer that other drivers also had their headlights off and asked to speak to a supervisor, and that's when "things escalated quickly as you can see," he wrote on Instagram.
The video then shows an officer smashing McNeil's driver's side window, demanding he get out of the car and hitting him in the face. The officers then open McNeil's car door and pull him out.
The that it's investigating the incident after it was made aware of the video circulating online, although the statement noted that "the State Attorney's Office has determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law." The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said it began both a criminal and administrative review of the officers' actions. The administrative reviews are ongoing, the sheriff's office said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing McNeil, said in a statement Monday that the video doesn't match what the officers said happened. He called the incident "a disturbing reminder" that asking for basic rights, like why McNeil was pulled over, "can be met with violence for Black Americans."
TheNews has reached out to the Florida State Attorney's Office for comment.
In the arrest report, provided to TheNews by McNeil's attorneys, officer D. Bowers said McNeil wasn't wearing his seatbelt when he pulled him over for allegedly not having his headlights on in inclement weather. The officer wrote that he asked McNeil for his driver's license, registration and proof of insurance numerous times, which he said McNeil refused, so Bowers called for backup.
"The suspect continued to refuse to comply, at which time I broke the driver's window and opened the driver's door. I along with other officers on scene removed the suspect from the vehicle," Bowers said in the arrest report. "The suspect was reaching for the floor board of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting."
McNeil was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, as well as resisting an officer without violence, according to the arrest report. He pleaded guilty to and was adjudicated guilty of resisting a police officer without violence and driving on a suspended driver's license, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said.
During a news conference Monday, Waters released body camera footage from the February incident and said the viral arrest video "does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding this incident" and it "did not capture the events that preceded Officer Bowers's decision to arrest McNeil."
The sheriff's office also posted an image of the knife as seen in one of the officers' bodycam video on Monday.
Bowers' shows the officer asking McNeil why he opened his door instead of rolling down his window. In the footage, McNeil says his window doesn't work, and Bowers then asks for McNeil's identification one time before telling him to get out of the car.
McNeil, who questioned why he was pulled over, responds "no" and shuts his door. He then asks the officer to call his supervisor, and that's when Bowers called for other responding officers, one of whom is heard talking to McNeil from the passenger's side of the vehicle in McNeil's video.
Waters said Bowers has been stripped of duty amid an internal investigation. He did not comment on Bowers' actions, but said "the law is clear."
"A person must comply with an officer's commands, even if that person disagrees with that officer's reasons for the stop," Waters said. He added that the sheriff's office had not received a complaint from McNeil and was unaware of the allegations prior to him posting the video.
Crump noted Monday that McNeil was wearing his seatbelt in his video, but it's unclear from Bowers' body camera footage whether McNeil was wearing his seatbelt when he was first pulled over. The attorney also disputed that McNeil was ever combative or that he was reaching for a knife, adding that the arrest report also failed to mention that the officer hit McNeil.
"The narrative in this report isn't just suspicious. It is completely divorced from reality. Not only is he clearly wearing his seatbelt in the video, he never reaches for anything," Crump said in a statement. "In fact, the only time he moves at all is when the officer knocks him over by punching him in his face. Then this young man calmly sits back straight and holds his empty hands up."
McNeil said his tooth was chipped and he needed several stitches in his lips as a result of the arrest. He also said he suffered a concussion and short-term memory loss.
In his video caption, he wrote: "This was very hard to do I'm not mentally healed from this but I had to get the word out eventually and if I pushed you away or changed more than likely this is why ..."
