Civil rights attorney Ben Crump says he has new evidence of a violent encounter between William McNeil Jr., a 22-year-old Black college student from Jacksonville, Florida, and officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office during a traffic stop.
Crump was joined at a news conference Tuesday in Chicago by attorneys Harry Daniels and Sue-Ann Robinson, who are also representing McNeil. The attorneys discussed a new angle of the video, which shows an officer pointing a gun at McNeil.
McNeil recently posted a dashcam video of the incident, which happened Feb. 19. In the video, an officer tells McNeil that he was pulled over because his headlights were turned off in the rain. McNeil replies that he did not need to have his headlights on, as it was bright outside and other drivers also had their headlights off.
After he asked to speak to a sheriff’s supervisor, McNeil closed his car door, which was open because he was unable to roll down his window. An officer can be seen smashing McNeil’s window, hitting him in his face and pulling him out of the car. The video went viral on social media.
In the police report, officials alleged that McNeil was reaching for a knife, but McNeil’s attorneys deny that.
At the news conference, McNeil said he didn’t feel safe at the start of the interaction and began recording once he was pulled over.
“It was traumatic,” he said. “I don’t sleep, still. I’m afraid of the police.”
Crump, speaking Tuesday at the National Bar Association’s annual convention in Chicago, said: “We are very proud that our National Bar Association is taking a stand as it relates to the racial profiling that happens in America far too often, especially when it comes to Black Americans.”
The attorney said he’s spoken to several civil rights lawyers in the Chicago area who say that racial profiling is a “devastating phenomenon in Cook County.”
“America is at a crossroads,” Crump said. “Are we going to be a nation who respects democracy and the Constitution and due process, or are we going to be a police state, where the police can do anything in violation of our constitutional rights and have no accountability?”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office released a statement Tuesday reiterating that Sheriff T.K. Waters has launched an internal investigation into the officers’ actions. The office said in a statement that the video Crump references “was not new,” and that the office had previously made the bodycam footage public July 21.
Officer Donald Bowers, the lead patrol officer on the stop, has been relieved of law enforcement duties pending completion of the investigation.
“We have more fighting to do,” Crump said. “We’re going to make sure that all American citizens are granted the American promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The NBA is unapologetic in our defense of Black life, Black liberty and Black humanity.”
