‘Lucky to be Alive’: Florida Cops Who Tossed Black Man Around ‘Like a Ragdoll’ Over a Seatbelt Violation In Vicious Beating Caught On Video Will Face a Federal Lawsuit

The Florida sheriff’s deputy who initiated the traffic stop on Le’Keian Woods last year had already killed a Black man in his previous job before he was hired at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, where he ended up killing another Black man. And he is now awaiting sentencing for sex crimes with children after pleading guilty in July, facing anywhere between 10 years to life in prison, according to the United States Department of Justice. So perhaps Josue Garriga III was not the most credible witness when he claimed to have seen Woods, a then-24-year-old Black man, conducting a drug transaction at a gas station which led to deputies pulling the car over for a seatbelt violation. Le’Keian Wood was brutally beaten by Jacksonville sheriff’s deputies after a cop claimed to have seen him conduct a drug transaction. But that cop, Josue Garriga (inset), has since been convicted on child molestation charges. (Photos: Witness video, booking photo and court video screenshot of Garriga in handcuffs following his arrest earlier this year. That stop led to several deputies tasering, punching, kneeing and slamming Wood’s face to the ground, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, a ruptured kidney, nerve damage and swelling...