A Jacksonville, Florida, police officer was “stripped of his duties” Monday after a video online showed the white officer punching a Black man in the face during a traffic stop in February, authorities said.
William McNeil Jr., 22, was pulled over by an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 19 for driving without his headlights on during the day, Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference.
In the video posted on Instagram on Saturday, McNeil is seen sitting in his car, asking to speak with a sergeant. He says he was pulled over because his headlights were off even though it was still daylight and not raining.
“It doesn’t matter, you’re still required to have headlights on,” an officer responds on the video.
McNeil, sitting behind the steering wheel with his seat belt fastened, asks an officer to show him the law the officer was citing and asks to speak with a supervisor.
Five seconds later, another officer breaks the driver’s-side window and punches McNeil in the face while instructing him to get out of the car and show his hands.
During the encounter, officers ask McNeil seven times to exit his vehicle.
Waters said at the news conference that McNeil did not follow officers’ commands after he was being ordered out of the car, which rose to the level of criminal resistance.
“The law requires that a person comply with a police officer’s command during a traffic stop. There are not options,” Waters said. “Even if that person disagrees with that officer’s reason for the stop.”
Waters said McNeil was arrested in connection with driving on a suspended driver’s license, resisting a police officer without violence and possessing less than 20 grams of marijuana.
McNeil eventually pleaded guilty to resisting a police officer and driving on a suspended license, Waters said.
During the news conference, sheriff’s officials showed three police body camera videos, none of which captured the moment when an officer identified only as “D. Bowers” punched McNeil in the face after he refused to get out of his car.
McNeil recorded the interaction on his cellphone, which was in a holder on his dashboard.
While the state attorney’s office cleared Bowers and two other officers of any wrongdoing, it had not seen the punch, Waters said.
The interaction is now under internal review by the sheriff’s office, he said.
“I will not commend nor defend Officer Bowers’ response,” Waters said, adding that Bowers waived his privacy rights to allow the body camera video to be released. “He’s been stripped of his law enforcement duties, effective immediately.
“Just because force is ugly doesn’t mean that it’s unlawful or contrary to public policy.”
Officers can be seen in the video pulling McNeil from his vehicle and punching him in the face again before they shove him to the ground, lacerating his chin.
“What the f–– is wrong with you?” one of the officers says before another tells McNeil he is being arrested. At least five officers can be seen detaining him.
The Instagram video had received more than 27,000 comments and been shared more than 100,00 times as of Monday afternoon.
Another of McNeil’s attorneys, Harry Daniels, said: “William felt like his rights were being trampled upon by being stopped during the day for not having headlights on. That’s a new one.
“The officers could have easily dispatched a sergeant to the scene to de-escalate,” he said.
Waters said McNeil never filed a complaint with the department nor showed the video to authorities.
In 2023, the city of Jacksonville paid $200,000 to the family of Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old Black student at Florida A&M University, after an officer pulled him over and shot him during a traffic stop for a seat belt violation in 2019.
The department came under scrutiny in 2023 after body camera video showed a detective striking Le’Keian Woods, a 24-year-old Black man, in the face at least twice and a second detective kneeing him as they repeated commands for him to show his hands.
Woods had fled when officers tried to arrest him in connection with drug dealing and officers believed he was armed, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
