It’s been an eventful few days for Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill, who was handcuffed and detained by Miami-Dade Police shortly before his team’s opening game Sunday.The detention was just temporary, and Hill later scored a stellar 80-yard touchdown in a close win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. He celebrated the score by putting his arms behind his back with his wrists together – a cheeky nod to his pregame incident.
But off the field, the detention – as well as police interactions with two other Dolphins players – has led to a public back-and-forth between the NFL team and local police and has renewed the debate over how law enforcement handles traffic stops and interacts with members of the public. On Monday night, police released nearly two hours of body-camera footage showing the interaction with Hill and other Dolphins players at the scene. A police union criticized Hill as “uncooperative.” Attorneys for one officer, who was placed on administrative duties amid a review, called the decision “premature” and called for the officer’s immediate reinstatement.
In turn, the Dolphins organization released a statement criticizing the officers’ conduct, and Hill’s agent called on the officers to be fired. Hill told CNN he remained confused by the encounter.
“I’m still kind of shell-shocked from it,” Hill said. “I’m embarrassed.”
The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) released body-worn camera footage from the incident unexpectedly on Monday night.
“While standard protocol is to release bodycam footage after the internal review has concluded, the available bodycam footage – a combined 105 minutes 33 seconds – is being released the day following the incident to reinforce the Department’s commitment to keeping the public informed,” Director Stephanie V. Daniels of the police department said in a statement.
The footage shows a police officer approaching Hill’s car and knocking on the window after he signaled for Hill to pull over. Hill rolls down the window when the officer knocks and replies, “Hey, don’t knock on my window like that.” The officer asks Hill why he doesn’t have a seatbelt on. Hill doesn’t answer and repeatedly says, “Don’t knock on my window like that.”
The officer asks why Hill had his window up and says he had to knock to let Hill know he was there.
“Give me my ticket bro so I can go, I’m going to be late. Do what you got to do,” Hill said before rolling up the window.
The officer tells him to keep his window down and knocks again, but Hill doesn’t appear to respond. The officer knocks again and tells Hill to keep his window down. Hill rolls down his window slightly and responds, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
The officer threatens to make Hill get out of the car if he doesn’t keep the window down, and then immediately after orders him out. Another officer opens Hill’s car door and starts to pull him out of the car, saying, “Get out!” while Hill responds, “I’m getting out.
Hill is heard saying, “I’m getting out, I’m getting out,” and the same officer says, “Too late.”
Two officers are seen pushing Hill to the ground while another officer stands over. Hill is heard saying, “I’m getting arrested” multiple times, and the one officer physically restraining him says, “When we tell you to do something, you do it. You understand? You understand? Not what you want, but what we tell you. You’re a little f**cking confused.”
“Alright bro, take me to jail, bro do what you gotta do,” Hill says. “We will,” the officer responds.
The time from when the officer first knocks on Hill’s window to when he is fully handcuffed on the ground is around a minute and a half.
The officers then move Hill to his feet and have him sit on the sidewalk. As an officer slowly leads him to sit on the ground, Hill says “Hold on, bro. I just had surgery on my knee.” As he is speaking, another officer comes behind him and puts an arm around his chest. He begins to pull Hill toward the ground as Hill repeats, “I just had surgery on my knee.”
The restraining officer says, “Really, what a coincidence. Did you have surgery on your ears when we told you to put the window down?”
“Bro, chill!” Hill yells.
Hill was ultimately cited for careless driving and a seatbelt violation, according to citations released by police. The citations note Hill’s vehicle had a “visual estimation 60 mph.”
“The actions displayed on video clearly do not meet the standard we expect from law enforcement, and are deeply concerning,” Miami-Dade County’s Chief of Public Safety James Reyes said in a Tuesday statement.
Hill spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday, saying everything happened very fast.
“I was following rules, I wasn’t moving fast because you know I got injuries, I got things that I go through. I play a physical sport, I’ve been doing this for a moment now man so I’m dealing with some stuff, so I guess the officers, they felt like I wasn’t doing it on their timing. I was doing it, but I’m still kind of shell-shocked from it,” Hill said. “I’m embarrassed.”
Hill further reflected on the moment that things escalated, saying that it started when officers asked him to roll down his window.
“When the officer came up and knocked on my window, I let my window down, cooperated, gave them my I.D. Then I immediately let up my window, and then after that I let back up my window, and then he came back to the window and was like, ‘Let your window down now, let your window down now’ and then I let it down,” Hill said.
“I’m not trying to cause a scene because … if I let my window down, people walking by, driving by, they’re going to notice that it’s me and they’re going to start taking pictures. I didn’t want to create a scene at all, I just really wanted to get the ticket and then just go out about my way and have a great Sunday.”
The 30-year-old was asked about an earlier quote of his about how the situation could’ve unfolded differently if he wasn’t Tyreek Hill.
“The reality of it is, it’s the truth. If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would’ve had a different article. ‘Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium,’ that’s worst-case scenario,” Hill said. “It’s crazy that me and my family had to go through this.”
