A Florida deputy who was shown on video punching and dragging a Black man from his car during a traffic stop did not commit a crime, according to a report by prosecutors on the incident.
A video of the traffic stop showed officer D. Bowers punching William McNeil Jr., 22, who recorded the clip. Other officers were shown throwing McNeil on the ground and surrounding him during the traffic stop.
The video of the Feb. 19 arrest sparked outrage online after it began making the rounds on social media in July, which resulted in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office launching an internal probe into the incident.
In the report by the State Attorney’s Office, published on Wednesday, prosecutors said that Bowers “conducted a lawful traffic stop and gave McNeil 12 individual lawful commands, which McNeil refused to obey.”
McNeil “created a dangerous situation for himself and law enforcement,” the report from prosecutors added.
“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 added.
The video was released on July 20 by McNeil’s lawyers, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels.
An officer 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.
The footage from the arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside of his car, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, “What is your reason?” He had been pulled over and accused of not having his headlights on, even though it was daytime, his lawyers alleged.
During a news briefing in July, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the cellphone camera footage from inside the car “does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
“Part of that stems from the distance and perspective of the recording cell phone camera,” the sheriff said in a statement, adding that the video did not capture events that occurred before officers decided to arrest McNeil.
Waters said cameras “can only capture what can be seen and heard.”
“So much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it,” he added.
McNeil was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, driving with a suspended licence, not wearing a seatbelt and not using headlights in bad weather.
Bowers had said McNeil was reaching toward an area where there was a knife. McNeil’s lawyers 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.
In a statement released to ABC News after the report clearing Bowers was published, McNeil’s lawyers called it “little more than an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact.”
“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.”
— with files from Reuters