{"id":88153,"date":"2025-07-24T08:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88153\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T08:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:21:23","slug":"william-mcneil-beaten-by-florida-officers-in-viral-video-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88153\/","title":{"rendered":"William McNeil, beaten by Florida officers in viral video, speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

William McNeil Jr.’s attorneys said the 22-year-old suffered a tooth fracture and a concussion during the violent traffic stop in Jacksonville, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

See viral and controversial Jacksonville arrest, bodycam footage<\/p>\n

In a viral video of William McNeil’s traffic stop by Jacksonville police, officers broke his window, punched and dragged him out of the car.<\/p>\n

The man who was pulled out of a car and beaten<\/a> by Florida police officers during a viral traffic stop<\/a> has spoken out for the first time about the incident as his attorneys call for more accountability.<\/p>\n

“That day, I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over, and why I needed to step out of the car,” William McNeil Jr. told reporters about the Feb. 19 arrest that only recently gained traction online<\/a>, sparking outrage and multiple official reviews.<\/p>\n

“I know I didn\u2019t do nothing wrong. I was really just scared, and that\u2019s it,” he added.<\/p>\n

His comments come just days after Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters released body camera footage of the arrest and said McNeil’s cellphone footage \u2013 taken from inside his car and capturing only a portion of the encounter \u2013 didn’t provide a full picture of what happened.<\/p>\n

In multiple body cam videos, officers are seen smashing McNeil’s window and striking him multiple times after he locked himself inside his car and questioned why he had been pulled over.<\/p>\n

The arresting officer said he had stopped the college student for a headlight and seatbelt violation. McNeil pleaded guilty to\u00a0resisting police without violence\u00a0and driving with a suspended license in connection with the February episode, court records show.<\/p>\n

Waters said an internal review of the officers’ conduct is ongoing. D.J. Bowers, the officer who broke McNeil’s window and struck him at least twice, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the agency’s review. A separate criminal probe undertaken by local prosecutors cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, Waters said.<\/p>\n

More: <\/strong>Body camera footage released after violent Florida traffic stop goes viral<\/a><\/p>\n

Violent arrest left McNeil with a fractured tooth, concussion\"play\"<\/p>\n

Watch William McNeil Jr. talk about controversial Jacksonville arrest<\/p>\n

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump stood by William McNeil Jr. as he spoke about the traffic stop with Jacksonville police that led to his arrest.<\/p>\n

McNeil’s attorneys at the July 23 news conference said the college student suffered permanent injuries from his arrest, including a fractured tooth that punctured his lip and required stitches. McNeil also sustained a concussion and remains under medical evaluation, said civil rights attorney Harry Daniels.<\/p>\n

Ben Crump, who is also representing McNeil, said police \u201cwere banging his head against the concrete while he was in handcuffs.\u201d He added, \u201cThis is not good policing. Nobody can say this is good policing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorneys called on the sheriff’s office to fire the officer who struck McNeil at least twice and said they are exploring legal action.<\/p>\n

Family members speak out about McNeil’s arrest<\/p>\n

McNeil’s mother, Latoya Solomon, and his stepfather, Alton Solomon, were also at the news conference and appeared emotional when speaking about the incident.<\/p>\n

Alton Solomon said he knows how his son felt because something similar happened to him when he was the same age.<\/p>\n

“To see that is a hurt feeling,” he said through tears.<\/p>\n

Latoya Solomon said she initially couldn’t watch the whole video and only watched it all recently.<\/p>\n

“I’m thanking God for protecting him,” she said.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Scott Butler and Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William McNeil Jr.’s attorneys said the 22-year-old suffered a tooth fracture and a concussion during the violent traffic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[567,5229,11307,22497,55899,59131,10556,413,4219,11313,56885,5375,3188,723,7310,16047,8142,3228,2936,425,728,644,663,50,1812,449,7207,57900,125,40276,645,448,447,456,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,8572,8576],"class_list":{"0":"post-88153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arrests","11":"tag-benjamin","12":"tag-benjamin-crump","13":"tag-brutality","14":"tag-civil","15":"tag-civil-rights","16":"tag-crime","17":"tag-crime-u0026-justice","18":"tag-crump","19":"tag-enforcement","20":"tag-fl","21":"tag-florida","22":"tag-jacksonville","23":"tag-jacksonville-sheriffs-office","24":"tag-justice","25":"tag-law","26":"tag-law-enforcement","27":"tag-local","28":"tag-local-news","29":"tag-modular","30":"tag-modular-story","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-office","33":"tag-point","34":"tag-police","35":"tag-police-brutality","36":"tag-rights","37":"tag-sheriffs","38":"tag-story","39":"tag-the","40":"tag-to","41":"tag-to-the-point","42":"tag-u0026","43":"tag-united-states","44":"tag-united-states-of-america","45":"tag-unitedstates","46":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","47":"tag-us","48":"tag-usa","49":"tag-violence","50":"tag-violence-u0026-abuse"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}