MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (WS News) — Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill acknowledged Wednesday 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 Sunday morning, 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.
“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 Sunday afternoon 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?”
“For me, it’s the yanking him out of the car, throwing him on the ground, the knee on the back and you can kind of hear him speak but because the officer has such weight on his back he can barely speak,” the Miami Heat captain said. “I don’t ever want to get pulled over and catch a cop on a bad day. It’s a reminder that they don’t care who you are. Some of it escalated to a point where it could have gotten ugly for him. We’ve seen this story a lot, countless times.”
The altercation, and what was seen on the six officers’ bodycam videos, has again brought to the forefront conversations surrounding the experience of Black people with police — something that has been a national talking point for some time.
Hill has been involved in off-field incidents before, though teammates spoke out this week to condemn those who used Hill’s past allegations of violence to justify any excessive use of force. McDaniel said Wednesday that Hill continues to grow as a person, and that he has spoken to him on multiple occasions about why that matters. He also acknowledged that Hill could have handled the incident differently, without revealing specifics.
“A conversation about what provoked unnecessary,” McDaniel said, “is trivial to the unnecessary.”
