A 24-year-old Florida probationer was struck at least 17 times by police officers after fleeing a traffic stop, body camera footage shows.
Le’Keian Woods, 24, lives in Florida, where he was serving felony probation at the time of his arrest.
On September 29, 2023, Woods ran from Jacksonville police officers following a traffic stop, according to police.
Officers chased and caught the fleeing man a short distance away, records show.
Body camera footage released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office captured officers tasing Woods twice during the arrest, records show.
The video also recorded officers hitting him at least 17 times across his ribs, shoulder, and face, footage shows.
Police said at the time that Woods was violently resisting arrest.
Officers also reported that they believed the man was armed during the physical struggle, police said.
No gun was found on Woods when officers took him into custody, police said. Officers did recover a weapon from the truck he had been inside prior to the chase, according to the department.
The recorded footage of the arrest quickly circulated online as a viral video, records show.
Woods’ family offered a sharply different version of what occurred on that same recording, according to his mother.
His mother, Natassia Woods, said her son stopped resisting as soon as officers deployed the taser against him.
According to his mother, the man was actively trying to offer his arm to be handcuffed after being tased, records show. The officers continued striking him across the face and body anyway, she said.
Photographs that circulated following the encounter documented extensive physical trauma across his face, records show.
Both of his eyes were hemorrhaged red, with deep bruising ringing the sockets, the images show.
His lip was also left split and swollen from the strikes, the photographs show.
The medical toll from that night reportedly included a ruptured kidney alongside the severe facial injuries, records show.
Nine days after the arrest, family members and supporters gathered to rally outside the Jacksonville City Council, records show.
The group then entered the council chambers to address city officials directly and demand accountability, records show.
Natassia Woods told council members that her son remained in dire condition while inside the Duval County Jail, records show.
She said jail staff held him in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, according to her remarks.
Natassia Woods told lawmakers her son had been denied necessary medical treatment for his injuries while in custody, records show. City Council President Rob Salem responded by arranging a private meeting between her and Councilman Jimmy Peluso, records show.
The family’s attorney, Broderick Taylor, argued that the incident exposed systemic problems within the department, according to his statement.
Taylor called for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to rewrite its entire use-of-force policy following the arrest, records show.
“Anything that gives justification for officers kneeing an individual in the head several times in order to gain compliance, the use of deadly force when someone poses no threat, needs to be re-examined,” Taylor said.
Taylor and Natassia Woods formally requested that the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation into the arrest, records show.
The family also called for the immediate termination of every officer involved in the struggle, according to their attorney.
In addition, they demanded that the sheriff’s office dissolve its gang task force entirely, records show.
Sheriff T.K. Waters held a press conference days after the arrest to address the growing public dispute, records show.
The family demanded that the officers face immediate disciplinary removal, records show. Sheriff Waters announced that an internal review determined the officers had acted appropriately during the encounter, records show.
All of the officers involved in the arrest were back on active duty within days, the agency said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has since declined to comment further on the case, citing pending litigation.
Woods was serving felony probation at the time of the Jacksonville arrest, court documents show.
That probation was tied to an earlier Tallahassee case in which his roommate was shot during a drug robbery, court records show.
Woods was originally charged with second-degree murder in connection with that shooting, according to court documents. He pleaded down to robbery and was never tried for the killing itself, records show.
Authorities transferred Woods out of Duval County on October 12, 2023, jail records show. He was booked into the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation, records show.
Authorities held him there without bond on a separate robbery-by-sudden-snatching charge originating from that earlier case, records show.
The Department of Justice opened an inquiry into whether the Jacksonville officers committed federal civil-rights violations, records show. In 2024, the department closed its investigation and declined to pursue federal criminal charges against the officers, records show.
Woods subsequently filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against several of the officers involved in the arrest, court records show.
That federal civil-rights lawsuit remains active, according to court records.
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