Latest news with #DBowers
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Prosecutors say Florida deputy who punched Black man at traffic stop did not commit crime
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A Florida deputy who punched a Black man at a February traffic stop did not commit a crime, prosecutors said in a report, opens new tab on an incident that was condemned by civil rights groups. A video of the incident showed officer D. Bowers punching William McNeil Jr., 22, who recorded the clip. It went viral in July when the video was posted online. Other officers threw the Black man to the ground and surrounded him during the traffic stop. "Officer Bowers conducted a lawful traffic stop and gave McNeil 12 individual lawful commands, which McNeil refused to obey," the report released by the State Attorney's Office for the 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida said. The report was dated Wednesday. McNeil "created a dangerous situation for himself and law enforcement," the report from prosecutors added. McNeil recorded the video as he sat in the driver's seat of his car after deputies pulled him over. In the video, he asked to speak to supervisors and questioned why he was stopped. An officer then smashed the driver's side window, ordered McNeil to exit the car, and hit him in his face. Another officer pulled him from the vehicle and threw him to the ground as other deputies surrounded him. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said in July that the public should not rush to judgment and that officers asked McNeil several times to come out of his vehicle. McNeil was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, driving with a suspended license, not wearing a seatbelt, and not using headlights in bad weather. He was sentenced to and served two days in jail, ABC News reported. Bowers had said McNeil was reaching toward an area where there was a knife. McNeil's attorneys - lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels - said their client was never combative. McNeil's lawyers criticized the decision not to pursue criminal charges and called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate. Civil rights group Black Lives Matter also condemned the decision not to pursue charges and said the viral video showed police brutality.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Prosecutors clear Florida officer who punched man in traffic stop
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 bodycam video shows the officer telling him he has been pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt or having his headlights on in inclement 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 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 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.
CNN
2 days ago
- CNN
Prosecutors clear Florida deputy in arrest of a Black man punched and dragged from his car
Prosecutors will take 'no further action' against a Florida sheriff's deputy in the arrest of a Black college student pulled from his car and beaten by officers during a February traffic stop. The actions 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. A video showing officers punching and dragging William McNeil from his car sparked nationwide outrage, though Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has said there's more to the story than the cell phone video that went viral online and that McNeil was repeatedly asked to exit his vehicle. In the investigative memo released Wednesday, prosecutors called the cell phone footage 'incomplete in scope' and said Bowers made a lawful traffic stop when he pulled McNeil over and that Bowers' use of force was justified. 'The State Attorney's Office has reviewed this matter to determine whether any of Officer Bowers' actions constitute a crime. We conclude they do not,' the report reads. According to the 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.' Based on a review of officer body camera footage, interviews the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office conducted with the officers involved and statements by McNeil, prosecutors said Bowers gave McNeil a dozen 'lawful commands,' which he disobeyed. After Bowers pulled him over, McNeil questioned the stop and declined to provide his license and registration. Though he earlier had his car door open while talking with an officer, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before the officers forcibly removed him, the video shows. 'It is the officers' body-worn camera footage that provides the additional needed context of the circumstances preceding, surrounding, and following McNeil's arrest,' the report reads. A statement from McNeil's lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, called the report clearing the deputy 'little more than an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact.' Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence. 'Frankly, we expected nothing less especially after Sheriff Waters announced their conclusions more than three weeks before the report was issued,' the statement said. '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.' Previously, Crump 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 deescalate 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.
CNN
2 days ago
- CNN
Prosecutors clear Florida deputy in arrest of a Black man punched and dragged from his car
Race & ethnicityFacebookTweetLink Follow Prosecutors will take 'no further action' against a Florida sheriff's deputy in the arrest of a Black college student pulled from his car and beaten by officers during a February traffic stop. The actions 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. A video showing officers punching and dragging William McNeil from his car sparked nationwide outrage, though Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has said there's more to the story than the cell phone video that went viral online and that McNeil was repeatedly asked to exit his vehicle. In the investigative memo released Wednesday, prosecutors called the cell phone footage 'incomplete in scope' and said Bowers made a lawful traffic stop when he pulled McNeil over and that Bowers' use of force was justified. 'The State Attorney's Office has reviewed this matter to determine whether any of Officer Bowers' actions constitute a crime. We conclude they do not,' the report reads. According to the 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.' Based on a review of officer body camera footage, interviews the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office conducted with the officers involved and statements by McNeil, prosecutors said Bowers gave McNeil a dozen 'lawful commands,' which he disobeyed. After Bowers pulled him over, McNeil questioned the stop and declined to provide his license and registration. Though he earlier had his car door open while talking with an officer, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before the officers forcibly removed him, the video shows. 'It is the officers' body-worn camera footage that provides the additional needed context of the circumstances preceding, surrounding, and following McNeil's arrest,' the report reads. A statement from McNeil's lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, called the report clearing the deputy 'little more than an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact.' Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence. 'Frankly, we expected nothing less especially after Sheriff Waters announced their conclusions more than three weeks before the report was issued,' the statement said. '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.' Previously, Crump 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 deescalate 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.
CNN
2 days ago
- CNN
Prosecutors clear Florida deputy in arrest of a Black man punched and dragged from his car
Prosecutors will take 'no further action' against a Florida sheriff's deputy in the arrest of a Black college student pulled from his car and beaten by officers during a February traffic stop. The actions 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. A video showing officers punching and dragging William McNeil from his car sparked nationwide outrage, though Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has said there's more to the story than the cell phone video that went viral online and that McNeil was repeatedly asked to exit his vehicle. In the investigative memo released Wednesday, prosecutors called the cell phone footage 'incomplete in scope' and said Bowers made a lawful traffic stop when he pulled McNeil over and that Bowers' use of force was justified. 'The State Attorney's Office has reviewed this matter to determine whether any of Officer Bowers' actions constitute a crime. We conclude they do not,' the report reads. According to the 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.' Based on a review of officer body camera footage, interviews the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office conducted with the officers involved and statements by McNeil, prosecutors said Bowers gave McNeil a dozen 'lawful commands,' which he disobeyed. After Bowers pulled him over, McNeil questioned the stop and declined to provide his license and registration. Though he earlier had his car door open while talking with an officer, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before the officers forcibly removed him, the video shows. 'It is the officers' body-worn camera footage that provides the additional needed context of the circumstances preceding, surrounding, and following McNeil's arrest,' the report reads. A statement from McNeil's lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, called the report clearing the deputy 'little more than an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact.' Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence. 'Frankly, we expected nothing less especially after Sheriff Waters announced their conclusions more than three weeks before the report was issued,' the statement said. '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.' Previously, Crump 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 deescalate 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.
