Jacksonville SheriffS Office Officer Stripped of Duties Amid Internal Review of Arrest
JACKSONVILLE, FL – An officer identified only as “D. Bowers” has been stripped of his law enforcement duties following an incident where a man, William McNeil, was punched in the face during an arrest. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office confirmed the action as an internal review of the interaction is underway.
The incident, captured on McNeil’s cellphone, occurred after he reportedly refused to exit his vehicle.While three police body camera videos were released by sheriff’s officials, none of them recorded the initial punch to McNeil’s face. mcneil’s cellphone footage, however, documented the interaction.
The state attorney’s office had previously cleared Bowers and two other officers of wrongdoing, but Sheriff Waters stated they had not reviewed the punch itself. Waters emphasized that he would “not commend nor defend Officer Bowers’ response” and noted that Bowers had waived his privacy rights for the body camera footage to be released.
Additional footage shows officers pulling McNeil from his car, punching him again in the face, and than shoving him to the ground, causing a laceration to his chin. During the altercation, one officer is heard asking, “What the f— is wrong with you?” before another informs mcneil he is under arrest. At least five officers were involved in detaining him.McNeil’s attorney, Harry Daniels, questioned the initial stop, suggesting it was for “not having headlights on” during the day, and proposed that a sergeant could have been dispatched to de-escalate the situation. Sheriff Waters indicated that McNeil had not filed a complaint with the department nor presented the video to authorities.This incident follows a pattern of scrutiny for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. In 2023, the city paid $200,000 to the family of Jamee Johnson, a FAMU student, after an officer shot him during a 2019 traffic stop for a seat belt violation. Also in 2023, body camera footage emerged showing a detective striking Le’Keian Woods, a 24-year-old Black man, multiple times in the face during an arrest. The Sheriff’s Office stated at the time that Woods had fled from officers attempting to arrest him on drug dealing charges and was believed to be armed.
