Two different videos of the same traffic stop have now circulated online — first the driver's own cellphone footage, and months later, body-camera video the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office released itself. Both show the same February 19, 2025 arrest of 22-year-old William McNeil Jr.
What the Body Camera Shows
JSO Officer D. Bowers pulled McNeil over for a headlight violation and an unbuckled seatbelt. McNeil's SUV had reportedly also been seen parked outside a house Bowers was surveilling as part of a drug investigation — a third, initially unstated reason for the stop that surfaced later. The Axon body-camera footage, timestamped 2025-02-19 at 4:18 p.m., shows Bowers approaching McNeil's vehicle, McNeil asking to speak with a supervisor before stepping out, and the physical struggle that follows as multiple deputies work to remove him from the SUV.
McNeil's own dashboard-mounted phone captured a tighter, more graphic angle of the same moments — Bowers breaking the driver's-side window and punching McNeil in the face. Both clips have circulated separately online, sometimes stripped of context or, in some cases, mislabeled with the wrong agency entirely.
Why JSO Released Its Own Footage
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters authorized the release of the body-camera video, distributed to newsrooms via CNN Newsource, in the weeks after the cellphone clip went viral and drew national attention. Waters called the footage "ugly" but said the department wanted the fuller picture available alongside the version McNeil had posted.
Even the most basic rights — like asking why you've been pulled over — can be met with violence.
Civil rights attorneys representing William McNeil Jr.
What Happened After the Video Went Viral
The footage drew condemnation from Jacksonville's NAACP chapter and national civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, who took on McNeil's case. In August 2025, the State Attorney's Office announced it would take no further criminal action against Bowers, concluding his use of force did not rise to a criminal violation. Bowers was stripped of his law enforcement authority pending an internal administrative review; investigators reported finding a large serrated knife in McNeil's vehicle during the stop.
The Case That's Still Open
McNeil filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in September 2025 seeking damages, including for a traumatic brain injury he says resulted from the encounter. A judge dismissed his claims against Sheriff Waters personally in June 2026, but the case against the department and Officer Bowers has continued through discovery, with a trial anticipated by late 2026.
McNeil separately pleaded guilty in February 2025 to resisting an officer without violence and driving on a suspended license — charges distinct from the excessive-force claims his federal lawsuit is still litigating.
