JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lawyers for William McNeil Jr. held a news conference on Tuesday in Chicago to address what they’re calling new evidence in the case of the viral video of a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office traffic stop that turned violent.
The video shows McNeil’s car window being broken by a JSO officer before the officer hit McNeil in the face and multiple officers dragged the 22-year-old out of his car on Feb. 19. Officer D.J. Bowers can then be seen punching McNeil in the face again.
Bowers’ arrest report for McNeil does not mention the two strikes to McNeil’s face.
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McNeil was told he had been pulled over because he did not have his headlights on during bad weather. It was daylight, and no rain could be seen in McNeil’s video or the body camera videos shared by Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters.
“I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and I needed to step out the car,” McNeil said during an earlier news conference with his attorneys. “I know I didn’t do nothing wrong. I was really just scared.”
Crump said the reason McNeil Jr. was really pulled over should be very clear.
“This was a classic case of ‘Driving while Black.’ I applaud William McNeil for keeping his demeanor, his calmness,” Crump said.
That data appears to support Crump’s theory.
Driving in the rain without headlights is an exceedingly rare infraction in Duval County. But it is less rare if you are Black like McNeil, according to more than three years of traffic-stop data obtained by The Tributary.
Renowned civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Ben Crump, joined by Sue-Ann Robinson, announced that they are set to reveal a new angle of video that allegedly shows a JSO officer pointing a gun at McNeil during the now infamous traffic stop.
Sheriff Waters said JSO is conducting an internal investigation, and Bowers was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation.
Waters announced the day after the video was released on social media that the State Attorney’s Office did not find that the officers violated criminal law.
JSO said it would no longer comment regarding the video after McNeil announced he retained lawyers.
