JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Dwon Ellis was arrested during a traffic stop by the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office on Feb. 9, 2024. The stop came after Ellis was pulled over for running two stop signs.<\/p>\n
According to the arrest report, officers Hendricks and Murphy searched Ellis\u2019 vehicle. The report states Ellis \u201cbegan to actively physically resist by turning his body.\u201d The officers handcuffed him after he continued to resist.<\/p>\n
Onlookers recorded the incident, capturing moments when Officer Murphy slapped Ellis multiple times. The police report does not mention these slaps.<\/p>\n
Bodycam footage shows one of the slaps during the arrest.<\/p>\n
Ellis said during the traffic stop, an officer slapped him repeatedly. \u201cThis man just slapped the ((bleep)) for nothing, bruh. I don\u2019t appreciate that,\u201d Ellis said in the video. <\/p>\n
When the officer said it was because Ellis was resisting, Ellis replied, \u201cI ain\u2019t did ((bleep)) to you, you can\u2019t get mad at me because your ((bleep)) at going together.\u201d <\/p>\n
The officer warned Ellis to stop pushing against them, but Ellis denied doing so before being slapped again.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office confirmed Officer Murphy was suspended for eight days after an internal complaint was investigated.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Ellis\u2019 attorney, Stephen Kelly, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against multiple officers, Sheriff T.K. Waters, and the City of Jacksonville. The lawsuit alleges violations of Ellis\u2019 Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, excessive force, failure to intervene, fabrication of evidence, false reporting, and municipal liability under Monell.<\/p>\n
Ellis, 32, said he still vividly remembers the incident and hopes his lawsuit will prevent others from experiencing similar treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t understand it, I just felt bad. I didn\u2019t know how to feel at the time. I was angry. I was hurt,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n
Attorney Kelly described the video as showing humiliation rather than a legitimate police tactic. \u201cThere\u2019s no tactical means of slapping someone who complied with all of your requests,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe was handcuffed. He wasn\u2019t slapped once, he wasn\u2019t slapped twice, he was slapped three times while handcuffed. That\u2019s not a police tactic. That\u2019s humiliation, and that\u2019s assault and battery.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks damages for emotional distress, financial loss, and other harms. A jury trial has been requested.<\/p>\n
When asked what he would say to anyone who claims this lawsuit is an attack on law enforcement, Kelly responded, \u201cSlapping someone who you know is unarmed, being compliant and handcuffed, whether you have a badge or a gun or not, is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly said the federal lawsuit is just the beginning. Ellis filed a complaint with JSO but said he was never informed about the officer\u2019s eight-day suspension until the interview. <\/p>\n
Kelly said he also wants to know if Officer Murphy received retraining. Ellis said he believes the officer who slapped him should be fired.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Dwon Ellis was arrested during a traffic stop by the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office on Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1872,833],"class_list":["post-121521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-lawsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}