JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said it has launched an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding an incident that occurred in February, but was shown in a video posted to social media early Sunday morning.
𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐅’𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) July 20, 2025
We are aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025. We have launched an internal investigation into it and the… pic.twitter.com/P5xiZl9HyI
In the video, JSO officers can be seen breaking a car window, hitting a man in his face, and pulling him out of his SUV following a traffic stop that the agency says is represented to have taken place on Feb. 19.
“We are aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025,” JSO said. “We hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly determining exactly what occurred.”
In the video, which was posted by a man named Will McNeil Jr, 22, and reviewed by News4JAX, McNeil appears to be discussing why he was pulled over with an officer who is near his passenger side window.
According to McNeil Jr., the incident took place around 4 p.m. He also said he was being pulled over because his headlights were off.
Arrest reports from JSO say the incident occurred at about 4:17 p.m. and confirm that McNeil Jr. was pulled over near Jacksonville’s Woodstock neighborhood because his vehicle “did not have its headlights or tail lights illuminated in inclement weather.”
Arrest reports also state that McNeil Jr. became “verbally combative” with the arresting officer and that the officer asked him for his driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance to which McNeil Jr. replied, “call your supervisor”.
“The suspect refused to comply and shut the driver’s door and locked it. I gave numerous orders to the suspect to provide his identification, which he refused,” the arresting officer wrote in his report.
When the video shows McNeil Jr. asking the officer to pull out the law that he was believed to have violated, the officer says, “When you step out of the car, I will.”
McNeil Jr. then asks the officer for a supervisor, and the officer can then be heard saying, “Go for it,” which is followed by a different JSO officer striking the driver’s side window three times and breaking it.
As the officer yells, “Exit the vehicle now! Exit the vehicle!” he can be seen striking McNeil Jr. in the face once before asking him to show his hands.
McNeil Jr. shows the officer his hands. The driver’s side door is then opened by the officer, and McNeil’s seatbelt is unfastened as he asks, “What is your reasoning, sir?” before being pulled from his seat.
According to the arresting officer in his report, he writes that he told McNeil that he was being placed under arrest for resisting an officer without violence and that McNeil “refused to exit the vehicle.”
“I gave the suspect several warnings that I was going to break the window and remove him from the vehicle if he did not comply with lawful commands. The suspect continued to refuse to comply, at which time I broke the driver’s window and opened the driver’s door,” the officer writes.
The video then appears to show an officer hitting McNeil Jr. in the face again as multiple officers push him to the ground and yell out commands.
The arresting officer adds in his report that he believed McNeil Jr. was reaching for a knife under his seat and was “continuing to pull away from officers” while refusing to place his hands behind his back, which required other officers to apply physical force.
The camera does not pick up what is happening to McNeil Jr. as he is on the ground, but McNeil Jr. can be heard saying, “What’s going on?” to which a JSO officer responds, “You’re under arrest, that’s what’s going on.”
McNeil Jr. can also be heard saying, “You don’t have a lawful reason,” and “I’m just trying to have a regular conversation with y’all.”
It is unclear which JSO officers are speaking, but one can be heard saying, “That’s not how it works...When they ask you to step out of the vehicle, you should have done that s***.”
An officer also appears to ask McNeil Jr., “So why close the door if you see him pull up?” McNeil appears to respond, saying, “Because, man, what do you mean? He’s talking about arresting me and stuff and I didn’t do anything wrong.”
News4JAX spoke with McNeil, who, through his attorneys, have permitted us to show the video that he posted to social media. The video can be found at the bottom of this story.
He tells us that after the incident shown in the video, he was taken to jail.
“Suffered a chipped tooth. Split lip. And went through my lip as I went to the concrete…[I] also had a concussion and suffer from short-term memory loss now," he said.
News4JAX also contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office about the video, and received the following response:
The video that preceded the statement by the sheriff was brought to our attention earlier today. As it is Sunday, those who are responsible for reviewing instances such as this are not in the office. I am not sure when or where this incident took place, or who is involved – the individual sitting in the driver’s seat or the officers shown.
As the sheriff stated, this incident and the circumstances surrounding what is shown in the released video will be reviewed to identify the questions you have asked below and more.
As soon as we have those answers, we will be able to share more.
Spokesperson for the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
State Representative Angie Nixon also posted to social media about the video, saying she is aware of it and has reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for more information.
“I’ll be sending a formal letter and request to meet about that, the deaths in the jail and other cases related to potential JSO misconduct,” Nixon wrote.
Around 9 p.m., Harry Daniels, a federal civil rights attorney, said on social media that he and high-profile attorney Benjamin Crump will be representing McNeil.
William McNeil Jr., the 22-year-old Black man whose assault at the hands of officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) has gone viral on social media, has hired nationally renowned civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Ben Crump to help him fight for justice following a February 19 incident when JSO officers violently smashed his window and punched him in the face multiple times after he asked to speak to a supervisor.
In the video, McNeil asks the officers while they pulled him over and they answer saying it was because he didn’t have his headlights on. When McNeil responded that it was daylight and it wasn’t raining, the officer said it didn’t matter.
This is only the latest in a long line of excessive force incidents involving the JSO. In September 2023, the department was the focus of a national outcry after a video of JSO officers violently beating 24-year-old Le’Keian Woods while he was unarmed went viral. In 2019, JSO officers faced a federal lawsuit for killing
22-year-old Jamee Johnson after pulling him over for an alleged seat belt violation.
Attorney Harry Daniels
Attorney Ben Crump said, “It should be obvious to anyone watching this video that William McNeil wasn’t a threat to anyone. He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights, and they beat him for it.”
