JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 22-year-old man at the center of a what’s now a viral video showing a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office traffic stop that turns violent will have some high-profile representation moving forward.
William McNeil Jr. has hired nationally renowned civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Ben Crump.
The traffic stop, which took place on Feb. 19 of this year, was captured on video (watch below). It shows JSO officers breaking McNeil Jr.’s driver’s side window, hitting him in his face, and pulling him out of his SUV during the traffic stop after he asked to speak to a supervisor.
“This is occurring in Duval County, in the City of Jacksonville, and it’s very concerning. We continue getting phone calls. We have other cases that we have not even brought to the public. This is absolutely disturbing actions of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” attorney Daniels told News4JAX in a phone interview on Monday morning. “It’s appalling.”
Daniels wrote in a news release on Sunday that this incident 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,” the attorney said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office acknowledged the video on Sunday, saying the agency has launched an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“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.”
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
Attorney Crump said in the news release that, “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.”
The Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP released a statement Monday morning, weighing in on the video:
The Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP has thoroughly reviewed the viral video involving the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Mr. William McNeil, Jr., and we are calling for immediate answers from Sheriff TK Waters. This troubling behavior from law enforcement highlights the very reasons why many African Americans, especially African American men, feel fear during traffic stops. Mr. McNeil posed no threat to the officers and certainly did not deserve such severe treatment.
We urge Sheriff Waters to take prompt and decisive action against these officers without delay.
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.
Isaiah Rumlin, president of Jacksonville NAACP
State Rep. Angie Nixon also posted to social media about the video, saying she is aware of it and has reached out to JSO 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.
News4JAX also contacted JSO 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
What the video shows
When the video begins, McNeil appears to be discussing with an officer who is near his passenger side window why he was pulled over, as another officer is seen outside McNeil’s driver’s side window.
According to McNeil Jr., the incident took place around 4 p.m. while he was driving home. He said he was being pulled over because his headlights were off.
An arrest report from JSO says the incident occurred at about 4:17 p.m. and confirms 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.”
The arrest report also states 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.
In the video, McNeil Jr. told officers when they asked him to roll down his window that he couldn’t because his window didn’t work, which is why he initially opened the door during the traffic stop to speak to the first officer.
The video shows McNeil Jr. asking another officer on the passenger side to pull out the law that he was told he had violated.
“There’s multiple people’s headlights off, first of all. And there’s no rain,” McNeil says to the officer, who is off screen.
“It doesn’t matter. You are required to have your headlights on,” the officer replies.
“Can you pull that law up?” McNeil asks.
The officer responds, “When you step out of the car, I will.”
McNeil Jr. then asks the officer for a supervisor, and the off-screen officer can be heard saying, “Go for it,” which is followed by the officer on the driver’s side striking the window three times and breaking it.
As that officer yells, “Exit the vehicle now! Exit the vehicle!” he can be seen striking McNeil Jr. in the face with a closed fist once before asking him to show his hands.
McNeil Jr. does not visibly react to the initial face punch and 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.
The arresting officer wrote in his report 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, permitted us to show the video that he posted to social media.
His attorney confirmed that McNeil suffered injuries, including a chipped tooth and a concussion, and that he needed stitches and is suffering short-term memory loss.
“This is one of these days that we have echoed over and over that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is out of control. This is not a one-off. This is a systematic continuum of assault on folk in Jacksonville,” Daniels told News4JAX.
McNeil told us that after the incident shown in the video, he was taken to jail. Court records show that McNeil was “adjudicated guilty” of resisting an officer without violence and driving on a suspended license.
The citations for not wearing a seat belt and driving without headlights in inclement weather appear to have been dismissed.
McNeil was sentenced to two days in jail, which he had already served by the time of his arraignment.
