NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill is considering legal action after bodycam footage revealed his interactions with police before the NFL season opener.
Hill was detained by police during a traffic stop before the Miami Dolphins game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, which his Dolphins won 20-17. After the game, Hill told reporters at a press conference that he was cooperative with police and wasn’t sure why he was placed on the ground in handcuffs.
“I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way, didn’t cuss, didn’t do none of that,” he explained.
The following day, shocking bodycam footage from the Miami-Dade Police Department was released showing exactly how the incident played out.
‘Keep your window down or I’m going to get you out of the car.’
The footage showed Hill, stopped in his black McLaren with heavy tints, as police were asking why he didn’t have his seatbelt on. At the same time, Hill was saying “don’t knock on my window like that” to the officer.
Hill handed his identification to the police officer and told him to give him his ticket. Hill then rolled his window back up. After an officer demanded the window go down, Hill lowered it about 25%.
“Keep your window down or I’m going to get you out of the car,” the officer said, with a thick accent. “As a matter of fact, get out of the car,” the officer then immediately added.
After threatening to break the car window, officers took approximately nine seconds to pull Hill from the car. He was then placed on the ground and put in handcuffs.
Then, after standing the football player up, officers forced him down again after deeming he was not cooperative. Hill said on the video that he recently had knee surgery and that was the reason he was trying to lower himself slowly.
During a subsequent interview with CNN, Hill told the network he was “still shell-shocked” from the incident and remarked that if he weren’t “Tyreek Hill” then he may have been shot by police in a worst-case scenario.
Host Kaitlan Collins read a statement by the president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, who described the incident from their point of view.
The statement said that Hill was “not immediately cooperative with the officers on scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs.”
The statement continued, “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,” the statement concluded.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News, Hill was asked whether he disputes the police union’s allegations that he was not cooperating.
Hill noted that “everybody has their own sides, their own version” and agreed with the idea that the police union should defend its members.
“You’ve got to have your teammates’ back,” Hill said.
The athlete went on, “I feel like at the end of the day, if you roll up on somebody all hostile, knocking on their window and they already got their ID, you know what I’m saying, ready for you. It’s not like I said, ‘You’re not getting my ID, you’re not getting my ID,'” Hill explained. “You know, it was one of those situations where I was like, ‘Here you go, my ID sir.’ And I let back up my window. He said, ‘Let it down.’ I let it down. That’s when it went from zero to 10. Other officers came in, just pulled me out.”
As a result, Hill has hired legal representation, who stated they are “exploring all legal remedies.”
Per OutKick, the legal team stated that while Hill is appreciative of his “celebrity” status, he is bothered by the idea of how the situation might have unfolded for someone without such a social status.
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Fearless, Nfl, Miami dolphins, Tyreek hill, Police, Sports