'I'm still frightened': Black student beaten during traffic stop files federal lawsuit

A Black college student filed a federal lawsuit this week against police officers who beat and dragged him out of his SUV during a traffic stop in Florida. It also names the city of Jacksonville and the Duval County government.

The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday at a federal court in Jacksonville, CBS News reported. The traffic stop occurred in February, and 22-year-old William McNeil released the now-viral video in July. In the video, McNeil is punched in the face and pulled out of the vehicle by police officers.

In August, prosecutors announced that following an investigative report released by the State Attorney's Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida, they would take no action "after determining the conduct of Officer D. Bowers of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office did not constitute a crime," CBS reports.

McNeil's attorneys, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's policies allow officers to use "illegal or excessive use of force" and racial profiling without fearing consequences for their actions. The lawsuit aims to address not only how their client was treated by police, but to change how policing is conducted in that area.

"It's an unjustifiable, unnecessary and most importantly unconstitutional use of force," said Crump, a civil rights attorney who has previously represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Martin Lee Anderson.

The prosecutors' report says that Bowers stopped McNeil for failing to turn his headlights on and buckle his seatbelt, after seeing him parked outside a house that an officer was patrolling for "drug activity."

McNeil questioned the traffic stop and requested a supervisor on-scene.

Prosecutors say that he did not respond to officers' "lawful commands."

"The suspect continued to refuse to comply, at which time I broke the driver's window and opened the driver's door. I along with other officers on scene removed the suspect from the vehicle," Bowers said in the arrest report obtained by CBS News. "The suspect was reaching for the floor board of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting."

McNeil suffered a laceration to the chin and lip, a fractured tooth and was diagnosed with an "ongoing traumatic brain injury," according to his attorneys, who have also called on the Department of Justice to investigate the case.

"I'm still afraid of police. I'm still frightened at night. I don't sleep still as much as I used to," McNeil said.