Bodycam video appears to show Florida officer aiming a gun at Black student during brutal arrest

CHICAGO (AP) — A Florida police officer had his gun aimed at a Black college student shortly before the driver was pulled from his car and beaten in a recorded encounter that recently sparked widespread outrage, civil rights lawyers said Tuesday.

The officer standing in front of William McNeil Jr.'s car appeared to have the 22-year-old at gunpoint as another officer who had just shattered his windshield began to drag him from the vehicle, according to one of the other officers' body cameras. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and other lawyers presented a still photo taken from the footage during a news conference in Chicago.

They called it one of many discrepancies from initial police accounts as they called for the officers involved to be fired and said a federal lawsuit was in the works.

“Read the police report. Watch the video. And see if they are telling the truth," Crump said. “They don't add up.”

McNeil's video — from a camera mounted inside his car — shows that glass shards flew into McNeil’s chin as he sat still in the car. An officer then struck him in the face and then punched him in the head seconds after he was pulled outside. After being knocked to the ground, McNeil was punched six more times in the hamstring of his right thigh, a police report states.

Crump and other members of McNeil's legal team say they believe there’s more video that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has not made public.

McNeil said the ordeal left him traumatized. It also left him with a brain injury, and he required several stiches after his tooth broke and pierced his lip, his attorneys said. He and his lawyers spoke at the annual convention of the National Bar Association, the nation's largest association of Black attorneys and judges.

Ahead of the news conference, Crump led a prayer with McNeil and his mother.

“That day I was telling the truth,” McNeil told reporters. “I was being held at gunpoint and I didn’t feel safe.”

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesperson said Tuesday that “due to pending litigation, we would be unable to speak further on the incident.”

After McNeil's video of the Feb. 19 traffic stop drew millions of views on the Internet earlier this month, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters pushed back on some of the claims made by the lawyers.

The sheriff, who is Black, said McNeil had been repeatedly told to exit the vehicle. And, though he earlier had his car door open while talking with an officer, he later closed it and appeared to keep it locked for about three minutes before the officers forcibly removed him, the video shows.

Waters said the cellphone camera footage from inside the car “does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident."

Cameras “can only capture what can be seen and heard,” the sheriff said at a news conference in Florida last week. “So much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it.”

McNeil had been pulled over and accused of not having his headlights on in inclement weather, even though it was daytime, his lawyers said. Crump said he believes the sheriff's office uses headlights as a pretext for stopping vehicles driven by Black people. He said his team has learned that Jacksonville officers cited 78 motorists for driving without headlights during the past three years, and 63 of them were Black.

A point of contention in the police report is a claim that McNeil reached toward an area of the car where deputies later found a knife during a search of the vehicle after his arrest.

“The suspect was reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting,” Officer D. Bowers wrote in his report.

Crump said the video shows that McNeil “never reaches for anything.” A second officer observed in his report that McNeil kept his hands up as Bowers smashed the window.

Last week, the sheriff released video of the violence from a couple of the officers' body-worn cameras. But Crump on Tuesday accused the sheriff of selectively releasing some bodycam video from only some of the officers at the scene with a goal of trying “to explain away what happened.”

“We know there are other videos that exist that we do not have,” he said. “We don’t think this is the only officer who drew his gun.”

The footage released by the sheriff showing the actual arrest is from two of the officers, but those videos show at least five officers within a few feet of McNeil as he’s dragged from the car and handcuffed on the ground. The sheriff also released some bodycam footage from a third officer, but that video only shows officers searching McNeil’s car after he was taken into custody.

In the bodycam videos released by the sheriff, it's difficult to see the punches and strikes and what happened to McNeil when he was on the ground, partly because the events occurred so close to the body-worn devices. Some of the police actions were also outside the frame of those cameras, so they were not clearly captured in the videos released so far.

“Even when he was handcuffed, they repeatedly slammed his head to the concrete," Crump said.

Shortly after his arrest, McNeil pleaded guilty to charges of resisting an officer without violence and driving with a suspended license, Waters said. The State Attorney’s Office determined that the officers did not violate any criminal laws, the sheriff said. An internal sheriff's investigation is ongoing.

McNeil is a biology major who played in the marching band at Livingstone College, a historically Black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina, Livingstone President Anthony Davis has said. The arrest occurred in February but didn’t capture much attention until the video from McNeil’s car-mounted camera went viral this month.

Martin reported from Atlanta.

William McNeil Jr., left, along with his mother Latoya Solomon, center, and attorney Sue-Ann Robinson, right, look on during a press conference Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

William McNeil Jr. looks on during a press conference Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

William McNeil Jr. looks on while standing next to his mother Latoya Solomon during a press conference Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

William McNeil Jr.'s attorney Ben Crump, center, speaks while showing a still from a police body cam video during a press conference Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

BOSTON (AP) — When Zdeno Chara signed with the Boston Bruins in 2006, the No. 3 he wore early in his career had already been retired by the Original Six franchise.

So he picked No. 33 without giving it much thought.

“Little did I know how meaningful 33 was,” Chara said on Thursday night before his number was raised to the TD Garden rafters not far from where Larry Bird's No. 33 already hangs in Celtics green.

It is the 13th number retired by the Bruins, and the latest in a collection of Hall of Fame defenseman that runs from Eddie Shore to Bobby Orr to Raymond Bourque.

“It's a huge honor,” Chara told reporters. "I can’t explain to you how honored I feel. I’m humbled about being selected to be one of the numbers being retired. Being with that history, forever."

The 2009 Norris Trophy winner and a 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, Chara spent 14 of his 24 NHL seasons in Boston, leading the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup championship. His 1,680 games is the most of any NHL defenseman; at 6 feet, 9 inches (2.06m), he is the tallest player in league history, and his 108.8 mph (175.1 kmh) slap shot in the 2012 skills competition remains the NHL record.

But his teammates and other Bruins attending Thursday's ceremony said Chara's biggest contribution was signing with a team that hadn't won a playoff series in six years — “the best decision I ever made” — and turning them into champions.

“Things really changed when Zee came here as a free agent,” Bourque said. "From that point on, the culture and everything that comes with that, and the success and the run that they had, he was such a big part of that.

“He’s a legend,” Bourque said. “He really deserves to be up there.”

Bourque was among the former Bruins greats in attendance, along with Orr — both of them, like Chara, Boston defensemen who finished their careers elsewhere on their way to the Hall of Fame. They arrived via gold carpet that led them past adoring fans and the statue of Orr flying through the air following his Cup-winning goal in the 1970 finals.

Other fellow retired number honorees in attendance included Cam Neely, Willie O’Ree, Rick Middleton, Terry O'Reilly and John Bucyk. The current Bruins sat on the bench, all wearing Chara jerseys.

Five members of the 2011 roster — Patrice Bergeron, Mark Recchi, Dennis Seidenberg, David Krejci and Tuukka Rask — carried the retired number onto the ice, and teammate Andrew Ference served as emcee.

In his speech, Chara read the names of every player on the Bruins last Cup winners. Asked why, he said after: “Without championships, you are not going to be successful, you’re not going to be recognized.

"The championships, that’s what they do. They raise everyone, they extend careers for everyone,” he explained. "They create dynasties. They create stories. They create memories. They created what we’re experiencing tonight.

"It’s very simple: Once you win the championship, everything gets so much better for everyone. And the most beautiful thing about it: You create extended families with each other. It’s true. You have bonds, you have friendships that are now still forever. It’s amazing; it’s like you’re seeing your brother. You trust the person; you know everything about them. And anytime anybody needs something, you’re there for them.

“That’s what winning championships do,” he said. “Not just for a career, but for the rest of your lives, it means something very special.”

The ceremony at center ice featured a “Big Zee” ice sculpture flanking the podium and a large No. 33 behind it. Fans were asked to get in their seats two hours early, and the full TD Garden erupted in a giant shout of “Zee!” followed by an extended cheer of “Thank you, Chara!”

A highlight video featured former Bruins Brad Marchand and current coach Marco Sturm, Chara's teammate from 2006-10. Many of them spoke of the way Chara led by example.

“He wasn’t really a ‘Rah, rah!’ guy,” former Bruins forward and current team president Neely said, “but when he spoke, it was with a purpose.”

And so, when it was time to raise his No. 33 to the rafters, Chara stood by with his wife, Tatiana, while their children — Zack, Ben and Elliz — pulled the ropes.

“That’s the biggest reward for me: To see my children and my family doing it instead of me. I think I get better joy watching them doing it than the joy of me doing it because it's so much more meaningful,” he explained. "They deserve that more than me."

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Former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara speaks during his number retirement ceremony before an NHL hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Seattle Kraken Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara leads his family over to his number "33" to raise it to the rafters before an NHL hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Seattle Kraken, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, center, waves to the crowd during his number retirement ceremony, as Bruins' players with their number already retired, from left, Willie O'Ree, Rick Middleton, Terrry O'Reilly, Cam Neely, emcee Andrew Ferrance and Bobby Orr look on before an NHL hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Seattle Kraken, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara's number "33" is raised to the rafters at TD Garden before an NHL hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Seattle Kraken Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Bobby Orr applauds, left bottom, as former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara waves to the crowd during his number retirement ceremony before an NHL hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Seattle Kraken, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)