Prosecutors clear Florida officer who punched man in traffic stop

BBC News

2 days ago

A Florida police officer who was suspended after punching a driver in the face during a traffic stop will not face criminal charges for his actions, prosecutors say.William McNeil Jr took a video of himself sitting in his car as an officer smashed his window, hit him and dragged him to the ground in footage that circulated widely online.In a report released by the State Attorney's Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida, prosecutors determined the officer, D Bowers, had not committed any crimes. "Officer Bowers conducted a lawful traffic stop and gave McNeil 12 individual lawful commands, which McNeil refused to obey," the report says.
After the video spread online in July, police released bodycam footage that showed Mr McNeil, 22, refusing demands to exit the vehicle after being told he had been pulled over for traffic violations.The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said the officer would be stripped of law-enforcement duties pending a review into whether he had violated any of its policies.In a 16-page memo released by the State Attorney's Office on Wednesday, prosecutors said the mobile phone video taken by Mr McNeil "does not tell the whole story of law enforcement's encounter with" and arrest of the man. It adds that prosecutors used body camera footage from the police officer to determine he had not violated standards or policy.In a statement to US media on Wednesday, Mr McNeil's lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, called on the federal government to investigate the incident. "Since they are unwilling to seek justice, we will have to request that the US Department of Justice investigate this incident and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office," they said. In his Instagram video, Mr McNeil said his tooth was chipped and he required stitches to his mouth after the arrest. He also said he suffered a concussion." I'm not mentally healed from this but I had to get the word out eventually," he wrote in the video caption.Mr McNeil was stopped on 19 February after the officer saw his SUV parked at a house which was under active surveillance for drug activity, prosecutors say.The bodycam video shows the officer telling him he has been pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt or having his headlights on in inclement weather.The footage shows McNeil refusing to leave the vehicle and asking to speak to the officer's supervisor before locking the doors."What started as a routine traffic stop quickly escalated into McNeil's arrest for Resisting an Officer without Violence for failing to follow lawful orders," the report says.The report also said that the body camera footage showed Officer Bower warning Mr McNeil multiple times that he would have to break the window - which he eventually did - if he did not get out of the car.After that, prosecutors say, the officer punched the man "in the struggle to gain" his compliance and that they found drug paraphernalia and a large serrated knife at his feet in his car. Mr McNeil later pleaded guilty to resisting an officer and driving with a suspended license, and prosecutors say he released the mobile phone footage five months after his guilty plea.