Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill acknowledged that he could have handled himself better in the initial moments of a weekend traffic stop that left him handcuffed and pulled out of his car by police officers near the team’s stadium.
Hill also said he wants one of the officers involved in the incident dismissed from the police force.
Hill said he wishes he did some things “a bit differently” on Monday, including leaving the window of his car down when officers instructed him to do so. He rolled up the window instead. The incident escalated quickly from there.
READ MORE: Head belts record runs in an over as Aussies smash England
READ MORE: Bartel’s warning as ‘frustrated’ star’s patience wanes
READ MORE: Backflipped star needs to ‘fire up’ after ‘wasted year’
“I will say I could have been better,” Hill said. “I could have let down my window in that instant. But the thing about me is, I don’t want attention. I don’t want to be cameras-out, phones-on-you in that moment. But at the end of the day, I’m human. I’ve got to follow rules. I’ve got to do what everyone else would do.
“Now, does that give them the right to literally beat the dog out of me? Absolutely not,” Hill continued. “But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a bit differently.”
Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie Daniels launched an internal affairs investigation on and one officer was transferred to administrative duties. That officer, Danny Torres, wants to be immediately reinstated, his attorney said this week. Meanwhile, the Dolphins have said they want “swift and strong action” against all the officers involved.
Hill did not mince words when detailing what action he thinks should be taken against the officer.
“Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. He’s gotta go, man,” Hill said. “In that instant right there, not only did he treat me bad, but he also treated my teammates with disrespect. He had some crazy words towards them and they didn’t even do nothing. Like, what did they do to you? They’re just walking on the sidewalk. He’s got to go, man.”
Hill was pulled from his car near the team’s stadium less than three hours before kick off of Miami’s game. He was placed on the ground and handcuffed, and teammate Calais Campbell — who drove by the scene and stopped in an effort to play peacemaker — also was handcuffed by police during the incident.
Hill was cited for careless driving and failing to wear a seatbelt.
The Dolphins play the Buffalo Bills on Friday, and Hill said he would use the game as therapy, an escape from thinking about the incident. He said he would not take a knee — a move many players have used in recent years to protest police brutality — or call for the defunding of police. Hill has said several times in recent days that he has respect for police officers, and he intends to pursue work in law enforcement when his playing days end.
“Right now, what I’m focused on is my job and that’s to play football,” Hill said. “That’s all I can be, the best football player I can be.”
Body camera footage of the incident, released by the Miami-Dade Police Department on Tuesday, showed that the traffic stop escalated quickly after Hill put up the window of his car.
Hill rolled down the driver’s side window and handed his licence to an officer who had been knocking on the window. Hill — one of the game’s best and most dynamic players, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection who led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards last season — then told the officer repeatedly to stop knocking before rolling the darkly tinted window back up.
After a back and forth about the window, the bodycam video shows an officer pull Hill out of his car by his arm and head and then force him face-first onto the ground. Officers handcuffed Hill and one put a knee in the middle of his back.
Hill can be heard in the footage yelling repeatedly that he’d just had surgery on his knee as officers forced him to the ground. The receiver said he had a minor stem cell procedure on his knee this off-season in Antigua. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel called it a procedure that Hill “makes sure that he takes care of”.
Hill said he was inside a movie theatre Monday night when he received word that the footage was released. He left the theatre to watch it and said he hopes people seeing the video — both civilians and law enforcement — use it as a means to learn and get better, even drawing the parallel to the way that football players improve when they watch game film.
“It’s shell-shocking, man,” Hill said. “It’s really crazy to know that you have officers in this world that would literally do that with bodycams on. It’s sad. It’s really sad. Which brings up another conversation and leads into ‘What would they do if they didn’t have bodycams?’. Which is even crazier.”