Bodycam footage of a University of Central Florida arrest has gone viral after a student repeatedly demanded officers use she/her pronouns during a stolen vehicle inquiry — an encounter that ended in pepper spray, three criminal charges, and a heated online debate about policing and mental health.
A routine stolen-vehicle investigation at the University of Central Florida escalated into a viral confrontation after a student repeatedly interrupted officers to insist they use female pronouns, according to body camera footage released by police. The student, identified in arrest records as 26-year-old Jarrett Preston Vick, was pepper-sprayed and taken into custody by UCF Police, and now faces charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer without violence, and disorderly conduct. Vick has pleaded not guilty, and the case remains before the courts.
What the bodycam footage shows
The recording begins with an officer approaching two individuals as part of an investigation into a reported car theft on the Orlando campus. Almost immediately, the footage shows the student cutting across the officer’s questions and pacing around the scene while shouting “Don’t say him! Say she!” several times.
According to the footage, officers spent several minutes attempting to calm the situation verbally before calling for backup. Before any force was used, the student was warned that pepper spray would be deployed unless they complied with commands. When those warnings went unheeded, officers used the spray, took the student into custody and transported them from the scene.
Police allege the battery charge arose from physical contact the student made with an officer during the struggle that followed.
The charges and court proceedings
Arrest records from the University of Central Florida Police Department, filed under agency control number 2025-0438, list three charges stemming from the single incident:
Battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony; resisting an officer without violence, a first-degree misdemeanour; and disorderly conduct, a second-degree misdemeanour.
Some early accounts of the case described the resisting charge as “with violence”, but the official charge details and court docket both record the offence as resisting an officer without violence.
Court records show Vick entered not guilty pleas to all three counts on 27 March 2025. There is also a discrepancy in the reported timeline: the arrest record lists the arrest date as 5 February 2025, while other accounts place the incident on 17 February 2025. No conviction has been recorded, and the criminal case is ongoing. As with any defendant, Vick is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Online reaction splits sharply
The release of the body camera footage triggered widespread attention on social media, with viewers divided over how to interpret the encounter. Some commenters characterised the student’s behaviour as deliberate non-compliance with lawful police commands, while others argued the erratic pacing and fixation during the exchange suggested a person in mental distress whose crisis was met with force rather than support.
The clip has fed into a broader, ongoing debate about how officers are trained to recognise and respond to possible mental health emergencies during routine calls — and where the line sits between de-escalation and enforcement when a subject refuses to cooperate.
UCF Police have not indicated that any review of the officers’ conduct is under way, and the outcome of the case will ultimately rest with the Florida courts.
