JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Le’Keian Woods, the man whose arrest sparked outrage in September, was released from jail Friday, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office online jail records.
His release comes after several charges against Woods were downgraded by the State Attorney’s Office, according to court documents.
Woods was facing two counts of armed trafficking, which were dropped. The resisting an officer with violence charge was replaced with resisting without violence, according to court documents.
In September, Woods was arrested after running from police following a traffic stop.
His arrest was caught on video and sparked outrage online after cell phone video showed him being hit several times and left with a bloody face, which caused JSO to conduct an investigation and release bodycam footage.
In early October, Woods’ attorneys issued a letter to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), asking for a review of what his lawyers said was a use of excessive force. The DOJ concluded that Woods’ arrest did not violate civil rights laws.
“I feel really good about the charges that’s been dropped on Le’Keian because I felt the whole time when T.K. said that he wanted to paint the picture and false narrative of Le’Keian. I was like God was going to show what was really going to happen and that’s what he did,” Le’Keian’s mother, Natassia Woods said.
Woods’ family along with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee held a rally on Thursday to protest against the JSO Crime Unit and call for the State Attorney Melissa Nelson to hold cops accountable and to press the city to adopt a public safety committee.
JCAC Executive Director Michael Sampson said the focus was on police brutality and call JSO to disband the gang unit.
“The gang unit was created in response to violent crime but what we’ve seen is particularly is an old theory of broken windows policing and they’re essentially targeting smaller crimes to catch the big ones. What does that translate to? It translates to an increased mistrust between the community and law enforcement,” Sampson said.
Woods’ mother said she’s waiting on the call to pick Le’Keian up from where he’ll return to being on probation until they push to get the rest of his charges dropped.
“I’ve never been away from my son this long,” Woods said. “We’ve never been separated this long. So I’m just ready for him to come home and hug me, hug his baby, hug his dad, his girlfriend, and we can just get back to the stuff we were supposed to be doing before all this happened.,” Woods said.
Woods’ next court appearance was set for Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 9 a.m. at the Duval County Courthouse.