Will McNeil Jr. sits in his car on Feb. 19, 2025, seconds after a police officer smashed in the window next to him He was then punched twice before his arrest. | Courtesy of 904.will.
Published on July 21, 2025 at 6:24 pm
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Community and civil rights groups are condemning the behavior of Jacksonville police officers after a viral video showed a Jacksonville man getting punched and dragged from his car during a traffic stop in February.
A video posted by Will McNeil Jr. has received millions of hits and thousands of comments on his X page, 904Will.
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McNeil has hired nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump to help him in a legal battle over the arrest.
McNeil’s video shows him talking to officers after the traffic stop before one smashes out his side window and he gets punched, then hit again before his arrest.
”They slammed me on the ground and it chipped on the concrete, and I had to get nine stitches — five on the outside, four on the inside,” McNeil told News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner. “And I also had a concussion, and self-affirmed short term memory loss now.
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“Looking at the video used to bother my mind a lot. I would get flashbacks — PTSD. I just didn’t like that. Now I’m good. Now I need to fight this.”
In a news conference Monday evening, Sheriff T.K. Waters said the department is reviewing whether any of the officers violated Sheriff’s Office policies. He said one of the officers, identified as D. Bowers, has been stripped of his law enforcement duties until the department’s review is done.
The State Attorney’s Office has determined that none of the officers violated criminal law, Waters said.
The sheriff stressed that the incident could have been avoided if McNeil had gotten out of his vehicle when instructed. Waters also questioned the timing of McNeil posting his video, months after it happened.
“Given that McNeil never brought this incident to JSO’s attention, but pushed the cellphone camera footage that he had in his possession since March 5th on social media, one can only assume – and I am saying I assume – that he intended to inflame the public,” Waters said. “The administrative process is still ongoing, and as such, I will neither defend, nor commend Officer Bower’s response to resistance until all the facts are known.”
A police report says McNeil was pulled over just after 4:15 p.m. Feb. 19 at West Palm and Commonwealth avenues because his vehicle “did not have its headlights or tail lights illuminated in inclement weather.” The officer also wrote that the driver was not wearing his seatbelt.
McNeil is shown wearing a seatbelt on the video, which apparently was shot from a camera mounted on his dashboard.
In the video, McNeil tells the officer it’s not raining.
“It doesn’t matter,” an officer tells McNeil as another officer is seen just outside the driver’s window. “You are still required to have headlights on.”
McNeil asks the officer speaking to him to “pull that law up.” The officer tells him he will “when you step out of the car.”
McNeil asks the officer to call his supervisor, and a voice is heard saying “All right, go for it,” and the other officer smashes out the driver’s window. He yells at McNeil to “exit the vehicle now,” then appears to punch him in the face with his left hand.
Another officer demands McNeil get out, followed by another punch to McNeil’s face.
“Show me your hands,” the officer says as others work to open McNeil’s driver’s door.
McNeil holds up both hands and says “here,” then sits back and waits for the door to be opened.
“What is your reason, sir,” McNeil asks officers as one reaches in to unbuckle him, then he is pulled out, grabbed by his head and shoved down. Other officers order him to “get on the ground,” and a police officer is seen punching McNeil in the face again.
The arrest report does not indicate that any force was used on McNeil, although its author states that McNeil “complained that his tooth was chipped. I observed blood on the suspect’s mouth.” But it does state that McNeil reached “for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting” before he was pulled from the car.
Waters noted that McNeil’s hands were not visible in much of the video he posted. The sheriff released footage from three officers’ body cameras, saying a single social media video can lack context. See the police bodycam here.
The bodycam shows Bowers trying to get McNeil to exist his Kia SUV. But it shows he had closed and locked his door and refused multiple commands from officers to come out, after being told he was being arrested for resisting arrest.
Late Sunday, civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels released a statement saying that McNeil had hired them.
“It should be obvious to anyone watching this video that William McNeil wasn’t a threat to anyone,” Crump said in the statement. “He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights, and they beat him for it.”
Daniels added in the statement: “I am absolutely disgusted by the actions of these officers, but, unfortunately, I’m not surprised. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has a long history of this kind of needless violence and brutality.”
McNeil has no record of prior arrests in Jacksonville. He was jailed for one day, then was found guilty during a court hearing of resisting an officer without violence and driving with a suspended license. Charges of marijuana possession, driving without headlights in the rain and driving without a seat belt were dismissed, his court file shows.
Release of the video spurred immediate comment from two local civil rights organizations.
Isaiah Rumlin, head of the Jacksonville branch of the NAACP, is calling for immediate answers from Sheriff T.K. Waters after reviewing the video.
“This troubling behavior from law enforcement highlights the very reasons why many African Americans, especially African American men, feel fear during traffic stops,” Rumlin wrote. “Mr. McNeil posed no threat to the officers and certainly did not deserve such severe treatment. … While we acknowledge that this footage does not capture the entire traffic stop, we ask Sheriff Waters to publicly release the body camera footage to ensure full transparency for the community.”
A statement from the Jacksonville Community Action Committee said the group it is “horrified and outraged by the brutal, unprovoked assault” on McNeil, who they said was pulled over for a minor violation.
“The resident’s request for a supervisor tragically became the catalyst for unwarranted and extreme violence,” it said. “What followed was a shocking and disproportionate use of force. While William states they were actively attempting to comply by putting their hands behind their back, officers violently slammed them to the ground. This savage act resulted in severe injuries.”
The statement demands that any officers involved in the arrest “be fired, indicted and convicted to the furthest extent of the law.” The committee also called for the creation of a Public Safety Committee to provide community oversight over police policies and procedures.
Crump has been involved in a number of recent civil rights actions in Jacksonville.
He and his law office made headlines in October when they filed a federal lawsuit against four Jacksonville police officers involved in the September 2023 arrest of Le’Keian Woods while he was unarmed. Cellphone video of the incident off Powers Avenue went viral.
In late 2019, Crump and another attorney demanded a U.S. Department of Justice review of the Sheriff’s Office after an officer shot and killed 22-year-old Jamee Johnson after pulling him over for a seat belt violation.
