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Jacksonville Sheriff Responds to Violent Arrests Between Florida and Georgia

Sakege November 5, 2024

In one case, the fan can be heard threatening to kill the officer.

(This story has been updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)

Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters led an hour-long briefing Monday night to provide context and footage from body cameras worn by deputies to support his officers’ actions, seen by millions in viral videos of his Physical tactics to subdue some disruptive fans. on saturday Florida-Georgia Match at EverBank Stadium.

The Times-Union recommends that viewers of the attached videos exercise discretion due to their violent content and use of expletives.

Previously, the Sheriff’s Office had been limited in its response. But on Monday, the sheriff said his Professional Standards Division’s initial review did not find that any of the officers involved violated the policy.

“In this case, the cell phone camera footage that has been circulating since Saturday does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding these cases,” Waters said. “…The cell phone cameras did not capture the events that led to the arrests.”

This included a threat to kill one of the officers and attempts to take his gun.

He noted that this is another situation where partial videos are posted on social media showing the worst description.

“Once again we are seeing intentionally misleading video clips that lack proper context spread on social media to generate a false narrative,” the sheriff said.

He said the Sheriff’s Office had 128 deputies and 12 supervisors working the game. They arrested eight people and kicked out 35. He said all but four complied with officers’ attempts to help “safe workers,” who are civilians who keep an eye on things and sometimes require official law enforcement.

He identified those four as Walter O’Ryan Brown, 39, Michael Wayne Long, 58, Alexander Michael Long, 27, and Brandon Boley. Boley did not report to the Duval County Jail, so his age and charges were unclear, but the others were charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct, intoxication and disorderly conduct and criminal trespass/defiance of order to leave.

The officers were identified as ED Kelly and DJ Bowers in one of the videos and J. Anthony, JS Beasley and A. Catino in the other video. He noted that the black officer in the two videos is not the same individual as some people have claimed. Waters said one of these officers in the first video was also the subject of death threats online later.

“I don’t need context, ‘N word,'” the sheriff quoted the threat. “You better hope I don’t know who you are. I’ll look up this ‘N-word’ and kill them. I’m coming. Equalizer. I don’t give a shit who they are. I’m getting ready to go.” putting bullets in them.”

What do initial Florida-Georgia police videos show?

Jeremy Williamson posted one of the videos on your Instagram accounts.

He believes it all started when officers tried to check a fan’s digital tickets, but the man said he paid for his seats and wouldn’t leave. When two officers try to get him to cooperate, they become impatient with him and one of the officers uses his Taser on him. He is seen grabbing the man’s shirt and he walks away.

He appears to crush the spikes of the Taser and is shot again with them. He convulses, one of the officers pushes him down onto a row of chairs and punches him repeatedly, even with handcuffs on one of his hands, while the video recorder presumably yells, “That’s assault,” five times: “You can’t do that.” that”. !” Other fans scream as he continues to fight while officers try to control him until he is handcuffed and bleeding from the head.

Le’Keian Forests: Report says black suspect in viral arrest video hit 17 times by Jacksonville officers

“You’re both going to lose your job,” says the voice behind the cell phone recorder. “…And you wonder why we don’t respect them all.”

Williamson told the Times-Union in a phone interview Sunday that it was excessive and unnecessary.

“What we witnessed was 100% wrong,” he said. “It was police brutality. Regardless of the words that came out of that man’s mouth, there was absolutely no excuse for what they did.”

In another video posted on X by Ohio Tate at Barstool TateIn the images you can see two officers repeatedly hitting and struggling with two fans in the stands. One is on top of a man on the stairs punching him and the other punches another man over and over again while the fan is hunched over with his arm around the officer.

Other fans can be heard gasping and screaming, including someone yelling “Why are you hitting him?”

The video does not show the circumstances that led to the use of force. The deputies in both videos appear to be wearing Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office uniforms.

What do body camera videos show in first arrest in Florida-Georgia game?

Jacob Vorpahl, public accountability and professional standards commander for the Sheriff’s Office, described each incident step by step. It started with Brown, who is from Nassau County.

It all started when a stadium worker made sure people had the right tickets for where they were going. He asked some children to find their parents and return with their tickets. When Brown arrived, he shoved the security worker and accused her of kidnapping his children and threatened to kill her. He then sought help from sheriff’s deputies.

When Bowers and Kelly approach Brown and inform him that he has been kicked out, he immediately becomes uncooperative and says that the employee assaulted him. He also tells a woman: “Remember what I told you: either I kill a police officer or I won’t leave.” He also prompts the officers to “tase” me.

He says he did nothing against the law and continues to argue with them and not cooperate, claiming the employee tried to kidnap his children. Bowers warns you that there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. But Brown responds: “I’m going to fuck your ass if I go back to jail, DJ Bowers.”

At that moment, Kelly uses her Taser on him. This only worked briefly when Brown became more combative and threatened Kelly: “Now you want some… Get your gun out.” This time, Bowers fires his Taser and Kelly begins punching Brown as the two fight until they manage to handcuff him.

Vorpahl said the officers attempted to use the lowest level of force necessary, but Brown continued to escalate the situation, leading to the officers having to increase their use of force. He also said there have been some comments on social media that Kelly was using his handcuffs as brass knuckles. He explained and demonstrated how the officer held his handcuffs with a portion exposed on each side but not wrapped like brass knuckles.

Vorpahl showed how Brown was pulling on Kelly’s shirt, so she couldn’t get away from him. He also emphasized that Brown attempted to grab Kelly’s gun from its holster during the fight, showing a video image with this circled.

What do body camera videos show in second arrest from Florida-Georgia game?

The second incident began when a security worker was warned that three men (the two Longs whom the Times-Union learned are father and son from Orange Park and their friend Boley) were particularly unruly, threatening and getting in the face of the people. The security worker warned them several times that they would be expelled. Another fan then went to an officer to help the safe worker.

The employee points to the three men and says he needs them outside. But the men still refuse despite the officer’s presence, and the father continues to ask why as he and his son point to others in front of and behind them. The other two officers also arrive, but according to the father they can be heard saying, “I’m not going.”

It then finally breaks out when one of the officers tries to take the father away and the son is seen jumping on the officer in what Vorphal describes as a “bear hug.” A Taser is used, but it’s hard to see who.

On the body camera of the second responding officer, he attempts to restrain the son and orders him not to swing. The son repeatedly says “I’m not swinging.” The officer has him on the ground and holds his hand behind his back, while the son continues to scream “I can’t move.” He is finally handcuffed.

The other man is also seen getting involved and initially being knocked backwards by a fan behind him, but little else is shown.

“They were asked to leave several times without any use of force,” Vorphal said. “They repeatedly remained in their seats, wanted to negotiate the situation, did not want to obey the officers’ orders…only then did the situation escalate to the use of force by JSO.”

It also showed how Michael Long assumed a fighting stance when the officer tried to grab him and had his hand in the face of the officer punching him, which was not seen in the video posted on social media.

Alexander Long, who along with his father was released on $5,000 bail, referred the Times-Union to attorney George Fallis. He provided the following statement: “I am waiting for the Sheriff’s Office to conduct its investigation before making any comments on the case.”