Prosecutors will not pursue charges against a Jacksonville sheriff’s deputy involved in the arrest of a Black college student who was pulled from his vehicle and struck by officers during a February traffic stop.
The State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit said in a report Wednesday that Deputy D. Bowers acted within the law when he stopped William McNeil and that his use of force was justified. The memo described the widely circulated cellphone video of the incident as “incomplete in scope” and said other evidence, including body camera footage, showed McNeil repeatedly refused lawful commands to exit his car.
The video, which showed officers punching and dragging McNeil from the driver’s seat, drew national outrage after it was posted online. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters previously said the clip omitted key moments leading up to the arrest.
The investigative report stated that Bowers’ actions during the stop did not constitute a crime, and prosecutors announced they will take “no further action” in the case.
In their statement, attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels disputed the findings, describing the report as an effort to defend the actions of Officer Bowers and other deputies after the fact. They said Sheriff T.K. Waters had announced the outcome weeks before the report’s release, undermining confidence in its conclusions.
The lawyers said they will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate both the incident and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Crump has said McNeil remained composed during the arrest while officers escalated tensions, likening the case to confrontations during the Civil Rights era in which Black Americans faced violence for asserting their rights.
