JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Black man who was shown on video being punched and dragged from his car by Florida law officers during a traffic stop will speak to the public on Wednesday.
William McNeil Jr., along with his family and attorneys, is set to host a news conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Paul Church of Jacksonville.
Footage of the 22-year-old man’s arrest has sparked nationwide outrage, with civil rights lawyers accusing authorities of fabricating their arrest report.
The video shows McNeil was sitting in the driver’s seat, asking to speak to the Jacksonville officers’ supervisor, when they broke his window, punched him in the face, pulled him from the vehicle, punched him again, and threw him to the ground. He was then knocked to the ground by an officer who delivered six closed-fist punches to the hamstring of his right thigh, police reports show.
But Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters says there’s more to the story than the cellphone video that went viral. He warned the public about “a rush to judgment” that could lead to faulty conclusions. McNeil’s lawyers say the video clearly depicts police brutality.
Body camera footage of the encounter shows McNeil had been repeatedly told to exit the vehicle. And, though McNeil earlier had his car door open while talking with authorities, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before the officers forcibly removed him, the video shows. The vantage point of the body camera footage that was released makes it difficult to see the punches that were thrown.
The cellphone footage from the Feb. 19 arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, “What is your reason?” He had pulled over and had been accused of not having his headlights on, even though it was daytime, his lawyers said.
“What happened to William McNeil Jr. is a disturbing reminder that even the most basic rights — like asking why you’ve been pulled over — can be met with violence for Black Americans,” lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels said in a statement. Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence.
“William was calm and compliant,” they said. “Yet instead of answers, he got his window smashed and was punched in the face, all over a questionable claim about headlights in broad daylight.”
The sheriff said the cellphone camera footage from inside the car “does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
“Part of that stems from the distance and perspective of the recording cell phone camera,” the sheriff said in a statement, adding that the video did not capture events that occurred before officers decided to arrest McNeil.
Cameras “can only capture what can be seen and heard,” the sheriff added. “So much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it.”