What we know about the police detention of Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill
CNN
By George Ramsay, Ben Morse, Wayne Sterling, David Close, Kevin Dotson and Homero De la Fuente, CNN
(CNN) — 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.”
Here’s what we know about Hill’s detention before the game on Sunday and its aftermath.
Bodycam footage shows Hill being pulled from his car
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 tells CNN he’s still in shock
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.”
Hill’s teammate also placed in handcuffs
A second Dolphins player, Calais Campbell, was also handcuffed when trying to discuss the situation with officers at the scene, according to police.
Speaking to ESPN on Monday, the 38-year-old defensive lineman recalled how he arrived at the scene of his teammate’s detention and attempted to diffuse the situation. He said he got out of his car with his hands up and approached the police officers, explaining, “I’m a friend of his (Hill). I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think the situation is definitely unnecessary.”
Campbell said he was told to leave, with an officer threatening to tow his car if he didn’t go away.
“I told him I will stand where you want me to stand. You tell me how far I need to back up, and I’ll back up, but I’m not leaving the scene,” Campbell recounted. “This is my friend here. I’m here to support him. I’m not leaving.”
When he remained, Campbell said the officer told him he was under arrest and put him in handcuffs.
Campbell said Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith was also at the scene as Hill pleaded with both teammates: “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”
Now in his 17th season, Campbell has previously won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award, given annually to a player “for his excellence on and off the field.” This is his first season with the Dolphins.
Campbell told ESPN he was thankful he was there to support Hill.
“These situations can escalate quickly. We see it so many times in America where these things go completely bad. This is a big opportunity for us to use this platform to combat police brutality that happens. This situation could have been a whole lot worse had we not been there.”
Dolphins organization and Hill’s agent slams police conduct
After the bodycam footage was released, the Miami Dolphins released a three-paragraph statement criticizing the “the overly aggressive and violent conduct directed towards Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith by police officers.”
“It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such unnecessary force and hostility towards these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did,” the team said.
The team said they have a positive relationship with the police and praised the “vast majority of officers.”
“However, 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.”
Earlier Monday, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said he was unsettled by the incident.
“It’s been hard for me not to find myself more upset the more I think about it,” McDaniel said at a press conference. “And that’s because of my teammates and trying to put myself in that situation that they described emotionally, and then knowing more than that, the thing that f**ks me up, honestly, is knowing that I don’t know exactly what that feels like.”
Still, he said two positive things came from the incident. “I’m super proud of teammates being teammates, and super proud of our guys understanding the civic responsibility of a platform and intending to do right by it.”
Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus described the incident as “heartbreaking, upsetting and uncalled for,” saying he was “in disbelief” about what took place ahead of the game.
“Tyreek was just trying to get to work, trying to play a game, just trying to do his job,” Rosenhaus said on “CNN News Central.” “For police officers to detain him, to put him on the ground like that, to put their knee on him, to hit him – it’s just devastating.”
In an appearance on “The Dan Le Batard Show,” Rosenhaus called on the officers to be removed from their job.
“For me, personally, I believe the police officers that did that to Tyreek shouldn’t be in that position – they should be let go,” he said. “There’s no place for a police officer to have a badge that operates like that, when Tyreek wasn’t being aggressive, or violent or fighting back in any capacity.
Police union says Hill was not cooperative
Daniels, the police director, said she initiated an internal investigation into the incident, adding that one of the officers involved has been placed on administrative duties.
“I’m committed to transparency and accountability to the community with any situation involving my officers,” she said.
The officer was identified by police as Danny Torres, who has a 27-year tenure.
His attorneys said they support the internal review but called for him to be reinstated. The officer will not comment until after the investigation, attorneys Ignacio Alvarez and Israel Reyes said in a statement.
The local police union has defended the actions of the officers involved.
“Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs,” Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement to CNN.
“Mr. Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground. Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave.
“In this case, while we will wait for the investigation to run its course, based on what we know, we stand with the actions of our officers but look forward to further open communication moving forward,” Stahl added.
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CNN’s Eric Levenson, Carlos Suarez and Denise Royal contributed to this report.
