By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Florida deputy who punched a Black man at a February traffic stop did not commit a crime, prosecutors said in a report on an incident that was condemned by civil rights groups.
A video of the incident showed officer D. Bowers punching William McNeil Jr., 22, who recorded the clip. It went viral in July when the video was posted online.
Other officers threw the Black man to the ground and surrounded him during the traffic stop.
“Officer Bowers conducted a lawful traffic stop and gave McNeil 12 individual lawful commands, which McNeil refused to obey,” the report released by the State Attorney’s Office for the 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida said. The report was dated Wednesday.
McNeil “created a dangerous situation for himself and law enforcement,” the report from prosecutors added.
McNeil recorded the video as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car after deputies pulled him over. In the video, he asked to speak to supervisors and questioned why he was stopped.
An officer then smashed the driver’s side window, ordered McNeil to exit the car, and hit him in his face. Another officer pulled him from the vehicle and threw him to the ground as other deputies surrounded him.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said in July that the public should not rush to judgment and that officers asked McNeil several times to come out of his vehicle.
McNeil was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, driving with a suspended license, not wearing a seatbelt, and not using headlights in bad weather.
He was sentenced to and served two days in jail, ABC News reported.
Bowers had said McNeil was reaching toward an area where there was a knife. McNeil’s attorneys – lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels – said their client was never combative.
McNeil’s lawyers criticized the decision not to pursue criminal charges and called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
Civil rights group Black Lives Matter also condemned the decision not to pursue charges and said the viral video showed police brutality.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in WashingtonEditing by Rod Nickel)
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