MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — A police officer dragged Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill out of his sports car by his arm and head and then forced him face-first onto the ground after Hill put up the window of his car during a traffic stop before Sunday’s game, body camera video released Monday shows.
The video showed that the altercation between the Miami-Dade County officers and Hill escalated quickly. The officers cursed at Hill but he did not resist their physical force or strike at them. He did tell one officer, “Don’t tell me what to do.” Six officers’ body camera videos have been released.
Police Director Stephanie Davis said the tape would normally not be released while the investigation is ongoing, but she wanted to demonstrate the department’s “commitment to transparency and maintaining public trust.”
In a CNN interview later Monday night, the 30-year-old NFL star said he was “embarrassed” and “shell-shocked” by the situation.
Video shows that two motorcycle officers went after Hill after he appeared to speed past them at in his McLaren sports car on the roadway entering Hard Rock Stadium in light traffic — they later said they clocked him at 60 mph (97 kph). They turned on their lights and pulled Hill over. One knocked on the driver’s window and told him to put it down, which Hill did and handed him his driver’s license.
“Don’t knock on my window like that,” Hill told the officer repeatedly.
“I have to knock to let you know I am here,” the officer told Hill while repeatedly asking why the player didn’t have his seatbelt on.
“Just give me my ticket, bro, so I can go. I am going to be late. Do what you gotta do,” Hill told the officer while putting his darkly tinted window back up.
“Keep your window down,” the officer told him, again tapping on the glass. Hill can still be seen inside.
Hill rolled the window down slightly and said, “Don’t tell me what to do.” He put the window back up.
Hill told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he did roll his window back up, citing concern about drawing unwanted attention to himself.
“If I let my window down, people walking by, driving by, they’re going to notice that it’s me,” Hill said. “And they’re going to start taking pictures, and I didn’t want to create a scene at all. Like, I just really wanted to get the ticket and then go on about my way.”
The officer again told Hill to put his window back down or “I am going to get you out of the car. As a matter of fact, get out of the car.”
The officer then demanded Hill open the door. Another officer stepped up and said, “Get out of the car or I will break that … window,” using an obscenity.
The door opened and the second officer reached in and grabbed Hill by the arm and the back of the head as the player said, “I am getting out.”
Hill later guessed that he wasn’t moving as quickly as the officers would have liked.
“I wasn’t moving fast because I’ve got injuries,” said Hill, who started his ninth NFL season. “I got things that I go through. I play a physical sport.”
The second officer forced Hill face-first onto the ground. Three officers pulled Hill’s arms behind his back as Hill yelled into his cellphone, “I am getting arrested Drew,” talking to the Dolphins’ director of security, Drew Brooks.
The officers handcuffed Hill and one put a knee in the middle of his back. “If we tell you to do something, do it.”
“Take me to jail, brother, do what you gotta do,” Hill replied.
“We are,” an officer said.
“You crazy,” Hill said to the officer.
The officers stood Hill up and walked him to the sidewalk. One officer told him to sit on the curb. Hill said to the officer he just had surgery on his knee.
An officer then jumped behind him and put a bar hold around Hill’s upper chest or neck. He pulled Hill into a seating position.
“Chill, bro,” Hill told the officers.
At that point, teammate Jonnu Smith parked his SUV in front of Hill’s car, got out and asked what was going on. The officers ordered Smith to get back in his vehicle and leave. They then told him they were going to give him a ticket for blocking the road.
Defensive tackle Calais Campbell also pulled up. He was told to leave and when he didn’t, he was briefly handcuffed.
Hill and Campbell were eventually released and allowed to go into the stadium. Hill received citations for careless driving and failing to wear a seatbelt, but was never arrested, the video shows. One officer was placed on administrative leave. An internal affairs investigation has been launched.
The Dolphins, in a statement released Monday night said they have a strong relationship with the police department but were “saddened” by the altercation.
“As is on full display in the videos released tonight, there are some officers who mistake their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power,” the team said. “While we commend MDPD for taking the right and necessary action to quickly release this footage, we also urge them to take equally swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior.”
Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, defended the officer’s actions, saying in a statement that Hill was not “immediately cooperative” with officers on the scene, that the officers followed their policy in handcuffing Hill, who was “redirected to the ground” after refusing to sit.
Julius B. Collins, Hill’s attorney who appeared with him on CNN, said there was one officer who was the “most aggressive” but another who initially approached Hill’s car was not aggressive at all. Neither was Hill, Collins added.
“You saw also, he put up his hands to show that he didn’t have a firearm. He wasn’t a threat and that he was complying with officers. I mean, you know, as far as this statement goes, though, from the police union, I think the video contradicts everything that they’re saying.”
Hill, who is Black, said he wondered what would have happened to him if he weren’t an NFL star. Some of his teammates who are also Black said they were used to seeing that sort of interaction.
“I hate talking like this, man, because I have a kid fan base,” Hill said. “But the reality of it, yeah, it’s the truth. If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would have had a different article — ‘Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium.’ That’s worst-case scenario. Or ‘Tyreek Hill put in handcuffs and taken in and booked.’”
This isn’t the first off-field incident involving Hill.
He was accused of punching his girlfriend in college and got kicked off the team at Oklahoma State, later pleading guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation. In 2019, prosecutors in suburban Kansas City declined to charge Hill after an alleged domestic violence incident involving his fiancée and their 3-year-old child.
Hill said Monday he wants to turn this recent incident into a positive.
“I’m a good ole country boy from South Georgia, man,” Hill said. “I’m not a big believer in dividing people.”
___
This story has been updated to correct the conversion to kilometers per hour.
—-
Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Associated Press Writer David Fischer contributed to this report.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
