Driver asks cop for supervisor, then cops smash window, punch him, FL video shows

A driver pulled over for not having his lights on asked to speak to the Florida officer’s supervisor, then the encounter turned violent, a viral video captured.

Duval County records show the driver pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and driving with a suspended license, but now he’s retained two prominent civil rights attorneys, Harry Daniels and Ben Crump, to “help him fight for justice,” Daniels said.

Video of the incident posted by Daniels on Instagram was viewed nearly 70,000 times in the first 20 hours. Now, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says it’s investigating the incident.

“We are aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said in a statement. “We have launched an internal investigation into it and the circumstances surrounding this incident. We hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly determining exactly what occurred.”

In his own social media post, Crump said the arrest report detailed the driver “was verbally combative & reached for a knife — and doesn’t mention him being punched in the face while in the car. But video shows him calm and showing his hands.”

According to the arrest report, officers pulled the driver over for driving without his lights on in inclement weather.

Officers wrote in the report that the driver refused to hand over his license, registration and proof of insurance, and the driver said it wasn’t raining and that other people had their headlights off.

In the video, the officer tells him he’s still required to have his headlights on, and the driver asks him to pull up the law that specifies that.

The officer replies, “When you step out of the car I will.”

“Can you call your supervisor?” the driver asks.

The officer can be heard saying, “All right, go for it,” then the video shows another officer smash the driver’s side window and yell for him to exit the vehicle as he punches the driver in the face.

Officers tell him show his hands, and he puts them up, then officers unlock and open the door, the video shows.

“What is your reason, sir?” he asks as they begin unbuckling his seat belt and pulling him out of the car.

“Step out now,” one officer responds.

A group of at least four officers converge on him, one grabbing him by the neck and punching him in the chin as the group tackles him to the ground, yelling at him to stop fighting and put his hands behind his back, according to the video.

“What’s wrong with you?” one officer says, once he seems to be restrained out of frame of the video.

“I was putting my hands behind my back,” the driver can be heard saying in part, as another office tells him to stop.

“Ain’t no talking now, man,” the officer says.

They tell him he’s under arrest, and he insists they “don’t have a lawful reason.”

One officer says when they told him to step out of the vehicle, he should have done it.

The arrest report says the driver was “verbally combative,” and officers broke his window and removed him from the vehicle when he refused to comply.

Officers wrote in the report he reached for a large knife on the floorboard.

“The suspect continued to attempt to pull away from officers and refused to place his hands behind his back,” officers wrote. “Physical force was applied to the suspect and he was taken to the ground. The suspect still refused to place his arms behind his back.”

Officers said after the scuffle, the driver was bleeding from his mouth and complained he had a chipped tooth.

When investigators interviewed him, they wrote in the report that “he recognized the officers to be law enforcement officers, but he did not want to speak to officers because he did not believe he had committed the violations for which he was cited.”

Daniels said his client’s arrest “is only the latest in a long line of excessive force incidents involving the JSO.”

No lawsuit has been announced yet.