White deputies were caught on cellphone video punching a Black man, William McNeil Jr., who was sitting still in the driver’s seat of his car in Jacksonville, Florida, on Feb. 19, reports The Associated Press.
McNeil asked to speak to the deputies’ supervisor when they broke his driver’s side window, punched him in the face, dragged him out of the car, and punched him again.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters warned the public about “a rush to judgment,” while McNeil’s lawyers say the video shows police brutality.
The Associates Press reports:
Body camera footage of the encounter shows that McNeil had been repeatedly told to exit the vehicle, and though McNeil earlier had his car door open while talking with authorities, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before deputies forcibly removed him. The vantage point of the bodycam footage that was released makes it difficult to see the punches that were thrown.
The cellphone footage from the Feb. 19 arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, “What is your reason?” He had pulled over and had been accused of not having his headlights on, even though it was daytime, his lawyers said.
…A key point of contention in the police report is a claim that McNeil was reaching toward an area where a knife was. Deputies later found the knife on the driver’s side floorboard of his car when they searched it after taking McNeil into custody.
“The suspect was reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting,” Officer D. Bowers wrote in his report. “The suspect continued to attempt to pull away from officers and refused to place his hands behind his back.”
Bowers does not mention any punches being thrown in his report, and describes the force this way: “Physical force was applied to the suspect and he was taken to the ground.”
In a separate report, a second officer describes knocking McNeil to the ground by grabbing his legs and driving his shoulders into him. Then, he delivered six closed-fist punches to the hamstring of McNeil’s right thigh, he said.
According to The Associated Press, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis supports the police even though he hasn’t seen the video:
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday defended law enforcement officers and implied the video was posted to advance a “narrative” and generate attention on social media.
“That’s what happens in so many of these things,” DeSantis said. “There’s a rush to judgment. There’s a, there’s a desire to try to get views and clicks by creating division.”
DeSantis says he hasn’t seen the video, but backs law enforcement.
(Sources: The Associates Press, The Associated Press/YouTube, The Associated Press)