Black student dragged from his car by Florida deputies files federal lawsuit

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville law enforcement officers violated the civil rights of a 22-year-old Black college student when they pulled him from his car and beat him during a traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

A video showing a Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer punching and dragging William McNeil from his car during a stop in February went viral online this summer and sparked nationwide outrage.

Prosecutors announced in August they would take no action after determining the conduct of Officer D. Bowers of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not constitute a crime, according to an investigative report released by the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida.

McNeil’s attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels say Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s policies allow officers to engage in racial profiling and “illegal or excessive use of force” without fear of consequences. Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has said there’s more to the story than the viral cellphone video and that McNeil was repeatedly asked to exit his vehicle. Waters, who is Black, said the footage from inside the car “does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

The lawsuit names Waters, Bowers, and another officer named D. Miller, as well as the City of Jacksonville and Duval County government.

According to a prosecutors’ report, Bowers stopped McNeil for failing to turn on his headlights and buckle his seatbelt, after seeing his SUV parked outside a house the officer was surveilling for “drug activity.”

Questioning the justification for the stop, McNeil requested a supervisor respond to the incident. Based on a review of body camera footage, interviews with officers and statements by McNeil, prosecutors said Bowers gave McNeil a dozen “lawful commands,” which he disobeyed.

Crump has claimed officers’ accounts of the incident are unreliable and has fiercely criticized prosecutors’ finding that officers did not commit any criminal wrongdoing, saying his client remained calm while the officers who are trained to de-escalate tense situations were the ones escalating violence. Crump said the case harkened back to the Civil Rights movement, when Black people were often attacked when they tried to assert their rights.

McNeil’s attorneys have also formally called on the Department of Justice to conduct its own investigation of the incident and what they described as “excessive force” and “systemic failures” by Jacksonville officials.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.