JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office (SAO) on Wednesday released a 16-page investigative report revealing new details surrounding the arrest of William McNeil Jr., the man whose controversial confrontation with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office that was captured on video during a traffic stop drew national attention.
The stop of McNeil, a college student who was pulled from his car and beaten by officers, led to an investigation and calls for motorists to consider protecting themselves by placing a camera inside their vehicles.
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McNeil captured his February traffic stop on his cellphone camera, which was mounted above his dashboard. It offered a unique view, providing the only clear footage of the violence by officers, including punches to his head that can’t be seen clearly in body camera footage released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
According to the SAO’s report released Wednesday, Officer D.J. Bowers stopped McNeil for traffic violations, including driving without headlights in inclement weather and not wearing a seat belt. New information in the report revealed that the stop came after McNeil was seen parked at a house that was under active surveillance for drug activity just after 4 p.m. on Feb. 19 on West Palm Avenue.
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, calling into question Bowers’ original reason for pulling McNeil over.
The report said once McNeil was stopped, he refused to provide a license, registration, or proof of insurance, refused to exit the vehicle, and failed to follow lawful commands 12 times.
“McNeil’s refusal to provide his identification, registration, and proof of insurance, followed by his refusal to exit the SUV, show his hands, and obey the officers’ orders, created a dangerous situation for all involved,” SAO investigators wrote in the report.
Instead of getting out of the vehicle when Bowers ordered him to, McNeil shut and locked his door, and Bowers called for backup. Following a tense conversation between McNeil and one of the backup officers, Bowers broke the driver’s window.
According to the report, Bowers then used two instances of physical force, an “open-hand strike” and a punch, to gain compliance during McNeil’s arrest.
The SAO said the open-handed strike, which was shown in a screen grab from the video, served a “legitimate tactical purpose” to get McNeil out of the SUV and to show his hands, which McNeil did after the strike.
Bowers’ arrest report for McNeil did not mention the first strike to the face.
When asked why he did not report the hit in his Response to Resistance report, Bowers explained he considered his use of the “distraction strike” as a tool and did not consider it as the deployment of force, according to investigators.
“Officer Bowers’ explanation is credible considering his stated training and the fact that he wrote a Response to Resistance report memorializing his closed fist punch to McNeil,” the report states.
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney said he expects Bowers’ omission of the strike to come up in the agency’s internal affairs investigation.
“You want a true document of what happened during an incident,” Hackney said. “You want that to coincide with what the video shows. What the body-worn camera shows.”
The SAO said it confirmed this technique is taught in the Defensive Tactics curriculum at the Northeast Florida Criminal Justice Training and Education Center, also known as the “Academy.”
In a July 21 interview with JSO Integrity detectives, the day after the video went viral, Officer Bowers, accompanied by an attorney, described the distraction strike to the face as a tactic he was taught during his time as a narcotics officer when conducting the arrest of a vehicle’s occupant.
Officer Bowers said his intended purpose in using this tactic was not to injure McNeil, but to distract him so that they could take control of him.
Officer Bowers said he believed he was at a tactical disadvantage because McNeil had “essentially barricaded himself in his car.”
Bowers and another officer also said they repeatedly saw McNeil’s hands moving down below the steering wheel and out of sight.
The report noted that counsel for Officer Bowers limited the scope of the JSO internal interview to the circumstances giving rise to Officer Bowers’ first strike. His counsel indicated that Officer Bowers’ written report spoke to the second strike and, accordingly, would serve as Officer Bowers’ official statement.
The SAO said Bowers’ second strike, a “close-fisted punch to McNeil’s chin,” happened during McNeil’s arrest and was in response to McNeil’s physical resistance.
McNeil said he suffered a chipped tooth and a concussion during the interaction.
McNeil was later found to have drugs in his pocket, drug paraphernalia in the vehicle, a large serrated knife at his feet, and was driving on a suspended license, according to the report.
The SAO said that the video of the stop and arrest that went viral was incomplete and did not show the full context, including McNeil’s refusals to comply.
The report said Bowers’ use of force was consistent with his training as a distraction strike and to control physical resistance, and the State Attorney’s Office concluded the force was lawful and did not constitute criminal acts, based on probable cause of traffic violations and drug-related surveillance information.
“When Officer Bowers stopped the vehicle McNeil was driving, he had no idea who was driving the vehicle. He knew McNeil had just been at a house under surveillance for narcotics. And he quickly learned he was dealing with a noncompliant driver. Officer Bowers did not know what was going through McNeil’s mind or what McNeil’s intentions may be,” the report states. “McNeil, on the other hand, knew he was driving on a suspended license. He knew he had drugs in his pocket and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. He knew he had a large, serrated knife at his feet. And for these reasons, McNeil also knew he would likely be arrested.”
No criminal charges against the officer will be pursued, SAO said.
The report also noted what it called misinformation presented by McNeil at press conferences.
Specifically, McNeil said he was held at gunpoint for a mere traffic infraction, but the SAO said it was only after McNeil was under arrest and while officers were attempting to take him into custody that an officer drew his firearm to provide lethal cover for the other officers.
Bowers was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal JSO investigation, and it wasn’t immediately clear when or if he would be reinstated.
Court records show that McNeil was “adjudicated guilty” of resisting an officer without violence and driving on a suspended license. Drug charges originally made against him, along with citations for not wearing a seat belt and driving without headlights in inclement weather, were dropped.
McNeil is represented by civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Ben Crump who issued a joint statement following the release of the investigative memo:
"The Investigative Memo from the State Attorney’s Office from the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida is little more than an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact. Frankly, we expected nothing less especially after Sheriff Waters announced their conclusions more than three weeks before the report was issued. Since they are unwilling to seek justice, we will have to request that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate this incident and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Let’s be clear, the State Attorney’s Office never interviewed William McNeil. They did, however, try to excuse the fact that Officer Bowers failed to disclose his unlawful “distractionary strike.” They also tried to decriminalize Officer Bowers punching Mr. McNeil outside the vehicle and completely failed to mention the officers slamming Mr. McNeil’s face into the asphalt while he was under control and in custody. Furthermore, they ignored the multiple injuries including a broken tooth, a concussion and multiple stitches caused by the officers’ use of force.
Finally, the memo asks us to ignore our own eyes by accepting the officers’ excuse that Mr. McNeil was reaching for a knife in the floorboard when he is never seen reaching for anything in either the bodycamera video or the video posted on social media.
The simple fact is that this memo ignores exactly the kind of excessive force and false reporting that resulted in the United States Department of Justice indicting Camden County Sheriff’s Deputy Buck Aldridge. It only further illustrates why use of force cases involving the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office need to be conducted by an independent agency that is not beholden to either the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office or the State’s Attorney."
You can read the entire report here.
