A newly published video of a traffic stop of February showing officers in Jacksonville, Florida, stopping a man after one of them broke his car window and struck him on the face caused an investigation into the use of the officers.
William McNeil Jr. published the video he had recorded on social networks on Sunday, saying that he was arrested on February 19. In the video, an officer of the Jacksonville sheriff’s office told McNeil that he had been arrested because his headlights were extinguished. McNeil, 22, told the officer that other drivers also had their headlights and asked to speak to a supervisor, and it was at this time that “things quickly degenerated as you can see,” he wrote on Instagram.
The video then shows an officer breaking the side window of the McNeil driver, demanding that he come out of the car and striking it in the face. The police then open the door of McNeil’s car and remove it.
THE Jacksonville’s sheriff’s office said on Monday That he investigates the incident after being informed of the online video, although the declaration noted that “the state prosecutor’s office determined that none of the officers involved violated criminal law”. The Jacksonville sheriff’s office said that it had started both a criminal and administrative examination of the actions of the officers. Administrative examinations are underway, said the sheriff’s office.
“That day, I really wanted to know why I stopped and why I had to get out of the car,” said McNeil at a press conference on Tuesday. “I was really afraid. And that’s it.”
The lawyer for civil rights, Ben Crump, who represents McNeil, described the situation as “a classic case of driving in black” during the press conference. He called the incident “a worrying reminder” what to ask for fundamental rights, as why McNeil was arrested, “can be confronted with violence for black Americans”.
At the Tuesday press conference, Crump said “that there was no rhyme or reason” for the police to prevent McNeil in his car and urged Jacksonville’s sheriff to end the officer responsible for McNeil’s injuries.
“Watch this video with your eyes. Listen with your own ears. We have an audio, visual evidence, proof of what happened,” said Crump.
He and lawyer Harry Daniels, who also represent McNeil, underlined the 22-year-old academic file as well as his composure during the confrontation of February when they argued that the police used excessive force, that the force was motivated racial and that the two are by-products of the “culture” of the Jacksonville sheriff of sheriff.
“They always have this narrative being, he was a thug, he was a criminal. But William was doing everything correctly,” said Daniels, noting that McNeil had received a scholarship to study at Livingstone College, a college or a historically black university (HBCU) in North Carolina. The mother and stepfather of McNeil also appeared during the briefing, pronouncing emotional remarks before McNeil himself spoke briefly.
CBS NEWS contacted the Florida prosecutor’s office to comment.
In the arrest report, provided to CBS News by McNeil lawyers, agent D. Bowers said that McNeil was not wearing his seat belt when he stopped him for not having had his headlights in bad weather. The officer wrote that he had asked McNeil his driver’s license, his registration and his proof of insurance on several occasions, which, according to McNeil, refused, then Bowers called for safeguard.
“The suspect continued to refuse to comply, when I broke the driver’s window and opened the driver’s door. I, with other officers on the scene, I removed the vehicle suspect,” said Bowers in the arrest report. “The suspect was looking for the floor floor of the vehicle where a large knife was seated.”
McNeil was accused of possession of marijuana and possession of drug accessories, as well as to resist an officer without violence, according to the arrest report. He pleaded guilty and was found guilty of having resisted a police officer without violence and driving with a suspended driver’s license, said Jacksonville’s sheriff TK Waters.
At a press conference on Monday, Waters published images of body cameras of the February incident and said that the viral arrest video “does not in depth the circumstances surrounding this incident” and that it “did not capture the events that preceded the decision of the Bowers officer to arrest McNeil”.
The sheriff’s office also published an image of the knife on Monday as in one of the videos of the officers.
Bowers’ Pictures of body cameras Show the officer asking McNeil why he opened his door instead of driving in his window. In the images, McNeil says that his window does not work, and Bowers then requests the identification of McNeil once before telling him to get out of the car.
McNeil, who asked why he was arrested, replied “no” and closes his door. He then asked the officer to call his supervisor, and it was at this time that Bowers called to other officers who responded, one of whom is heard in McNeil on the passenger side of the vehicle in McNeil’s video.
Waters said Bowers had been stripped of his duties in the midst of an internal investigation. He did not comment on Bowers’ actions, but said “the law is clear”.
“A person must comply with the orders of an officer, even if this person does not agree with the reasons for this officer,” said Waters. He added that the sheriff’s office had not received a complaint from McNeil and was not aware of the allegations before publishing the video.
Crump noted on Monday that McNeil wore his security belt in his video, but it is not clear images of the Bowers body camera, if McNeil wore his seat belt when he was arrested for the first time. The lawyer also disputed that McNeil was never combative or that he was looking for a knife, adding that the arrest report did not mention that the officer had struck McNeil.
“The story of this report is not only suspect. He is completely divorced from reality. Not only does he clearly carry his seat belt in the video, but he does not reach anything,” Crump said in a statement. “In fact, the only time he moves at all is when the officer overturns him by hitting him on his face. Then this young man sits down straight and holds his empty hands.”
McNeil said that his tooth had been chipped and that he needed several stitches in his lips following the arrest. He also said that he had undergone a concussion and short -term memory loss.
In his video legend, he wrote: “It was very difficult to do, I am not mentally healed from that, but I finally had to pass the word and if I pushed you back or changed more than probably that is why …”