JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — William McNeil Jr., 22, joined by his attorneys Ben Crump and Henry Daniels as well as members of his family held a news conference today at the St. Paul Church of Jacksonville to speak out about the viral traffic stop video involving Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers.
This comes after Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters held a press conference on Monday, during which body-camera footage of the incident was released.
This incident took place on February 19th, when McNeil was pulled over by JSO for allegedly driving without his headlights on, a moment he recently shared on social media.
In the video, McNeil requested to speak with a supervisor, which escalated to officers breaking his car window and punching him multiple times during the arrest.
McNeil recalled feeling scared in that moment.
“That day I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and why I needed to step out the car and I know I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
Attorney Ben Crump directed a message to Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, calling for accountability from the officers involved.
“To the sheriff, respectfully, you can’t justify this, you can’t condone this, you have to condemn this. You have to look at that video and say this does not reflect our training, our policies or our values and you need to terminate that officer immediately!”
Following the release of the video, Sheriff T.K. Waters announced that Officer D. Bowers, the officer that was seen punching McNeil in the face, has since been stripped of his law enforcement authority pending the outcome of this internal investigation.
However, Waters stated that the State’s Attorney’s Office has cleared the officers involved of any criminal wrongdoing.
Crump has publicly demanded justice for McNeil.
“We plan to exploit every possible legal remedy to get some measure of justice for William McNeil Jr. every possible legal remedy. If this was your child, we’re going to to do everything that you would want done if this was your child.”
After the news conference, Sheriff T.K. Waters released the following statement.
“In light of William McNeil Jr.’s public announcement that he has retained counsel, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will not offer any further comment regarding the circumstances surrounding McNeil’s February 19th arrest. Our agency has publicly released body-worn camera footage pertaining to this matter, and I provided a briefing on the status of the investigation earlier this week. This publicly shared information is currently available on all JSO’s social media platforms and our transparency portal. However, in anticipation of litigation, our agency will not speak further on this matter.”
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