‘Think We Have the Wrong Guy’: Innocent Black Florida Man Attacked by Cops and Mauled by K9 After ‘Matching the Description,’ Files Lawsuit
Jamari Brooks was stepping out of a doctor’s office in 2022 when he was ordered at gunpoint by officers from the Jacksonville sheriff’s gang unit to get on the ground – even though the 27-year-old Black man had committed no crime. One cop placed his foot on Brooks’ head as he was facedown on the ground, while another cop allowed a police dog to maul his arm even though he was not resisting or fighting. Another cop grabbed his ankles and crossed them, bending his legs against his buttocks while planting his knee on Brooks’ legs. Jamari Brooks was walking out of a doctor's office in Florida when he was brutally attacked by Jacksonville cops who allowed a police dog to maul his arm for nearly a minute. (Photo: body camera) The torture and abuse continued for nearly a minute before they finally handcuffed him and realized they had arrested the wrong Black man. “Ain’t him,” said Jacksonville sheriff officer Josue Garriga, who is now serving a 24-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting a minor. ‘Don’t Get Up Monkey’: Pennsylvania Youth Football Team Punished After Reporting That Black Players Were Called Racial Slurs During Game “Looks just like him but it ain’t him,” Garriga told fellow officer Beau Daigle, according to the lawsuit filed by Brooks against the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which states the arrest was only one of several incidents over the years where Jacksonville sheriff officers have abused Black men. This is part of a pattern and practice of police brutality and constitutional violations by the officers on the Jacksonville Gang Unit. The unjustified and unconstitutional use of force against Brooks was not isolated, but rather it was part of a longstanding trend of similar instances of force and other forms of misconduct by JSO officers and, in particular, the JSO Gang Unit and its member officers. The arrest was captured on police bodycam video, but Brooks’ attorney, John M. Phillips from the Phillips, Hunt & Walker law firm in Jacksonville, said he removed the audio. “The audio has been redacted to remove our client's voice and identity to protect some of his privacy,” Phillips explained on the YouTube description of the video, which can be viewed below. The Arrest The incident took place on July 21, 2022, as members of the Jacksonville sheriff’s gang unit claim they were looking for a Black man in a Ford Mustang that had sped away from them when they tried to pull it over. The cops claimed they were looking for a Black man named Jewell Hayes, who they said was wearing a black shirt and lime green hat. The lawsuit states that Brooks was borrowing the car from a friend, but does not specify which friend. The lawsuit does not go into detail about Hayes or his relationship with Brooks, stating the following: The defense was BROOKS was under observation by JSO’s Gang Unit because he was erroneously, unreasonably, and improperly identified as Jewell Hayes, who had previously been seen in the same or similar car. As noted in BROOKS’s successful defense, the subject car Defendant had driven had not been reported stolen and there was not probable cause to believe that the car had been stolen. Defendant was the possessor and sole occupant of that vehicle and had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the car and its contents. Prior to the search of the automobile, there was not probable cause to believe that the car contained contraband. The dysfunctional police report noted that detectives with the Gang Unit attempted to follow the vehicle with intentions to initiate a traffic stop; however, due to the alleged reckless driving behavior, a traffic stop was not able to be performed. The vehicle was allegedly observed by multiple Detectives traveling at more than 30 mph over the posted speed limit on several occasions while traveling on Interstate 295. Several minutes later, the ' vehicle was observed pulling into 1634 Blanding Blvd (Hyde Park Medical Center), at which time a black male wearing a black shirt and a lime green hat exited the Ford Mustang and entered Hyde Park Medical Center. The video shows Brooks was wearing a black shirt but he does not appear to be wearing a hat. But that did not matter to the officers who were certain they had the right man. “Get on the f_cking ground!” one cop yells while pointing his gun at Brooks as he is walking out of the doctor’s office. “Get on the god d_mn ground!” The video shows Brooks immediately complied, but another cop allowed a K9 to maul his arm for nearly a minute, which the claim states was a violation of departmental policy that dictates police dogs can only be used in cases of self-defense, protecting other officers in distress, or to prevent suspects from escaping. But Brooks neither fought nor fled, so there was no reason to allow the dog to attack him. “Further, as Brooks was not the intended target of the police operation, but simply a different Black male living in the same city as the intended target, use of the dog for an arrest was inappropriate, unwarranted, based on a prejudicial identification, and unconstitutional,” the claim states. In 2023, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office raided the home of a Black grandmother in another case of mistaken identity. Earlier this year, Jacksonville sheriff officers made national news when they busted out the window of a Black man named William McNeil, Jr, after pulling him over for not having his headlights turned on during inclement weather, resulting in another lawsuit. The Corruption Listed in the lawsuit as defendants are Jacksonville sheriff officers Josue Garriga, Beau Daigle, Trey McCullough, Hunter Sullivan, Lemmuel Johnson, Dough Howell, and two John Does, cops whose names are not known at this time. Also listed is Jacksonville Sheriff Thomas K. Waters, along with the city of Jacksonville. The defendants are accused of violating Brooks’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by using “unreasonable and excessive force” as well as battery and negligence. Four of the above defendants, Garriga, Daigle, McCullough, and Sullivan, are also listed in a previous lawsuit where the gang unit attacked another Black man named Le’Keian Woods in September 2023. Garriga, who had already killed two Black men in the line of duty, had claimed he saw Woods making a drug transaction, which led to officers pulling him over for a seatbelt violation. The officers then tasered, punched, kneed and slammed Woods’ face to the ground, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, a ruptured kidney, nerve damage and swelling to his eyes and face that resulted in vision impairment in his left eye that still exists. But in 2024, Garriga pleaded guilty to sex crimes with children and is now serving a 24-year sentence in federal prison. According to the press release from the United States Department of Justice last year, Garriga coerced a 17-year-old girl he had met at church into performing sex acts on him. On at least two occasions, Garriga used his JSO work vehicle to travel to the victim’s neighborhood in Clay County to meet up with her and engage in sexual contact that was illegal under Florida law. On another occasion, Garriga met up with the victim at a coffee shop in Clay County and enticed her to his JSO work vehicle where he engaged in sexual activity with the victim and physically restrained her from leaving the vehicle until she relented and performed a sex act on him. Garriga, who was hired by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in July 2018, was one of two officers who shot and killed a Black man named Jamee Johnson in December 2019. Both cops were cleared, but the incident resulted in a $200,000 settlement for the victim’s family. In 2015, he was one of four Putnam County sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed another Black man named Andrew Williams. The claim states Garriga was the cop who misidentified Brooks, which is not surprising considering he lied when he claimed he saw Johnson making a drug transaction. It also states that the cops searched the car he was driving without probable cause, finding drugs that did not belong to him since it was not his car. His attorney said the charges against him were dismissed and his record expunged, which is why it is not visible in online court records. “Jamari was not involved with any crime,” wrote attorney Phillips in the description of the YouTube video. “He did not flee. Did not run. Even an officer on the scene said on body camera- I think we have the wrong guy.”
