Footage depicts violent encounter between man, Jacksonville police during traffic stop
By: A violent encounter between a man and Jacksonville officers during a traffic stop was captured on a witness’ cellphone and body-worn police cameras, both of which were obtained Wednesday by News4JAX.
It happened Monday night in a parking lot off King's Road in the New Town area. The family of the man in the video, Natra Jones, says the 30-year-old was beaten by police. He was charged with resisting arrest and possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia. He’s since been released from jail on bond.
In a statement (in full at end of article) that accompanied the release of the body-worn camera footage, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the officers involved did not violate state laws or policy.
From one angle, it’s difficult to determine what Jones is doing with his hands, but we can see what appears to be officers striking Jones in an attempt to place handcuffs on him.
Approximately 46 seconds into the video, one officer appears to be holding Jones from behind while another officer has him in a headlock and delivers two uppercut blows to his face. He eventually goes down, and then we hear him being stun gunned.
In an angle from one of the body-worn cameras, an officer can be heard saying he sees what looked like a gun.
“He’s got a gun, he has a gun,” one officer says.
“I don’t have no gun! What are y’all talking about a gun,” the man yells.
Notably, no firearm was recovered from the scene.
Security expert James Brown, who is a former JSO officer, was able to review the footage that was taken by a witness.
“It’s very dangerous because you got an individual’s head. The carotid artery. The neck. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, especially with the head being locked and the individual’s body weight and then delivering punches,” Brown said of the footage.
Brown also said that when there are multiple officers at a scene, there should be a coordinated effort to take a suspect into custody.
“If you have multiple officers going after one individual, you can easily get confused in the struggle to where you’re working against yourselves,” Brown explained.
Court records show that Jones has a long criminal history involving the sale of illegal narcotics.