William McNeil Jr.’s traffic stop in Jacksonville, Florida, on February 19, 2025, ended with an officer smashing his driver-side window and punching him in the face twice. Cellphone video McNeil recorded went viral five months later, a state prosecutor cleared the officers of any crime in August 2025, and McNeil has sued the officers, the sheriff, and the City of Jacksonville in federal court for $100,000.1
What Happened at the Stop
Around 4:15 p.m. on February 19, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Officer D.J. Bowers pulled the 22-year-old over for driving without headlights during inclement weather and for not wearing a seat belt. McNeil questioned the basis for the stop, pointing out it was still daylight, and asked for a supervisor.
Two recordings captured what followed: McNeil’s phone and Bowers’ body-worn camera. A memo later issued by the State Attorney’s Office said McNeil refused 12 separate commands, including requests to produce his license, registration, and insurance, and orders to step out of the SUV. At one point he closed and locked his door.
Officers told McNeil he was under arrest for resisting and warned him they would break the window if he did not comply. When he still refused to get out, an officer smashed the driver-side window. Bowers then struck McNeil in the face with an open hand, a blow prosecutors later described as a “distractionary” technique consistent with defensive tactics training. Officers pulled McNeil from the vehicle, pinned him to the ground, and Bowers punched him in the face a second time with a closed fist.
Police reported finding an unsheathed serrated knife on the driver-side floorboard, marijuana in McNeil’s pocket, and drug paraphernalia in the center console. McNeil’s attorneys said he never reached for the knife and was “calm and compliant” throughout.
Injuries
McNeil’s legal team said he suffered a fractured tooth, a laceration to his chin and lip that required stitches, and a concussion. His attorneys have also described an ongoing traumatic brain injury with cognitive impairment and short-term memory deficits, along with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Charges Against McNeil
McNeil was booked on resisting an officer without violence, driving on a suspended license, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The next morning, February 20, 2025, he pleaded guilty at his first appearance to the resisting charge and the suspended-license charge and was sentenced to two days of time served.
Why the Video Went Viral Five Months Later
McNeil posted his cellphone footage on Instagram in July 2025. In the caption he wrote that he was “not mentally healed from this but I had to get the word out eventually.” The clip, which showed the window being smashed, the punch to the face, and officers dragging him to the ground, began circulating widely around July 20, 2025.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said the department learned of the video that Sunday and opened a criminal investigation the same day. Waters argued the phone footage was “intended to inflame the public” and lacked full context, noting it did not capture the events leading up to the use of force or the seven warnings officers gave before breaking the window. “Cameras can only capture what can be seen and heard,” he said, adding that “so much context and depth are absent from recorded footage.”
Attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels called the video a “clear depiction of brutality” and a case of “racial profiling and excessive force.”
The State Attorney’s Decision
On August 13, 2025, the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit released an investigative memorandum concluding that Bowers committed no crime. The review drew on body-worn camera footage, JSO incident and arrest reports, and integrity interviews of Officers Bowers and Miller conducted by the JSO Integrity Unit on July 21, 2025.
Prosecutors treated Bowers’ actions as two separate uses of force. The open-hand strike after the window was broken was deemed a legitimate distraction technique aimed at gaining control of a noncompliant subject whose hands were not visible. The closed-fist punch during the ground takedown was found to be a response to active physical resistance. Both, the office said, were “lawful and not subject to criminal prosecution.”
Prosecutors did not interview McNeil, saying the physical interaction was sufficiently captured on video. The office also disclosed that Director of Investigations Robin Waters was excluded from the review because of familial ties to Sheriff Waters. Crump and Daniels called the report “an attempt to justify the actions of Officer Bowers and his fellow officers after the fact.”
The Sheriff’s Office’s Internal Discipline
While the criminal review was underway, JSO ran its own administrative investigation. Bowers was stripped of his law enforcement authority in July 2025 and moved to the Tele-Serv Unit on desk duty.
The results, released on January 9, 2026, were split. Bowers was exonerated on the charge of using unnecessary force, with investigators finding his actions within JSO policy. But JSO sustained a charge of failure to conform to work standards because Bowers had not included the initial open-hand strike in his Response to Resistance report. Investigators found no evidence the omission was intentionally deceptive; Bowers told them he “did not consider it as the deployment of force.” He received a Written Reprimand Level 1, and his law enforcement authority was restored.
The Federal Lawsuit
On September 10, 2025, McNeil’s attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. It names Officer D. Bowers, Officer D. Miller, Sheriff T.K. Waters, and the City of Jacksonville as defendants and seeks $100,000 in damages.
The complaint alleges that JSO “enforces a policy that allows its officers to utilize unwarranted and excessive physical force against an individual who poses no immediate threat” and permits officers to refrain from reporting instances of physical force. Crump described the officers’ accounts as “unreliable” and called the force used “unjustifiable, unnecessary and most importantly unconstitutional.”
Crump and Daniels have also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate, citing potential violations of 18 U.S. Code § 242, which criminalizes the deprivation of rights under color of law. As of January 2026, JSO declined to comment further, citing the pending litigation, and said its administrative review had concluded.
Bowers’ Record and a Pattern at JSO
Bowers’ administrative file lists five prior allegations over more than a decade. In August 2011 he received a written reprimand after sustained complaints of unbecoming conduct and a secondary employment violation. A 2012 unbecoming conduct allegation was not sustained. A May 2016 citizen driving complaint was sustained and led to informal counseling. A 2018 complaint alleging unbecoming conduct and failure to take appropriate action was resolved in his favor. A 2023 charge of failure to conform to work standards was sustained and led to formal counseling.
Three months before the McNeil stop, in November 2024, Bowers was involved in the use-of-force arrest of Walter Brown at the Georgia-Florida football game at EverBank Stadium. Body camera footage showed the suspect had been threatening a stadium worker and reaching for an officer’s weapon, and JSO concluded Bowers followed protocol.
McNeil’s attorneys and state lawmakers have also pointed to the September 2023 arrest of Le’Keian Woods, who was tased twice and struck 17 times during a traffic stop that began over a seatbelt violation. Woods pleaded guilty to misdemeanor resisting without violence; drug possession and evidence-tampering charges were dropped. The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed that case in November 2023 and concluded it did not give rise to a prosecutable violation of federal civil rights law. Woods’ own federal lawsuit, filed with attorney Harry Daniels, was pending as of late 2024. Responding to the Woods footage at the time, Sheriff Waters said, “just because force is ugly does not mean it is unlawful or contrary to policy.”