Hill says he could have handled traffic stop better

Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPNSep 11, 2024, 01:11 PM ET

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MIAMI — Three days after his detainment by Miami-Dade police officers, Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill said he “could have been better” in terms of how he handled the situation.

Hill was pulled over for speeding roughly three hours before the Dolphins’ season opener Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Body camera footage released Monday night showed Hill was slow to roll his window down when asked to by the officer who pulled him over and was ultimately told to exit his vehicle.

When he did not comply quickly enough, an officer, who has since been identified as Danny Torres, pulled him out of his car and handcuffed him while he was face down on the pavement. Torres kneeled on Hill’s back while placing him in handcuffs and forced him to the ground again roughly a minute later, when Hill was slow to comply with an order to sit down.

Speaking to local media Wednesday, Hill explained why he was slow to roll his window down and took responsibility for his behavior — while also condemning Torres’ behavior.

“My whole life is all about accountability. How can I get better?” Hill said Wednesday. “I will say I could have been better. I could have let down my window in that instant. But the thing about me is, man, I don’t want attention. I don’t want [there] 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 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. But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a bit differently.”

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Hill said he was at a movie theater Monday night when the body camera footage was released; he received a call from the Dolphins’ director of security, Drew Brooks, alerting him.

He left the theater to watch the footage, which he described as “shell-shocking.”

“I feel like I handled myself well in that situation,” he said. “But obviously, like I said, I can be better, but it’s shell-shocking, man. It is really crazy to know that you have officers in this world that will 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. So, it’s a lot to unpack, man.”

Through his lawyer, Julius Collins, Hill released a statement Tuesday night calling for Torres’ immediate termination from the Miami-Dade Police Department. Torres, a 27-year veteran with the MDPD, is currently on administrative duties during an internal affairs investigation of the incident.

Hill strongly stood by that statement Wednesday, saying that Torres had to go — not only for his actions against Hill but also for what he did to Hill’s teammates Jonnu Smith and Calais Campbell, who stopped at the scene Sunday in support of Hill.

Body camera footage shows Torres aggressively approach Smith shortly after forcing a handcuffed Hill to the ground, and later detaining Campbell for what the former Walter Payton Man of the Year award winner described as “disobeying a direct order.”

“I will say I could have been better. I could have let down my window in that instant. But the thing about me is, man, I don’t want attention. I don’t want [there] 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 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.” Tyreek Hill

“He’s got to go, man,” Hill said of Torres. “Because in that instant right there, not only did he treat me bad, you know what I’m saying? He also treated my teammates with disrespect. He had some crazy words towards them, and they ain’t even do nothing. What did they do to you? They just walking on the sidewalk.”

Hill also said that Torres’ legal representation reached out to him and Collins in an effort to apologize but that the offer was declined.

In the body camera footage, Hill is heard saying he recently underwent knee surgery, shortly before Torres forced him to the ground for a second time. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel confirmed that Hill underwent a “minor procedure” on his knee during the offseason, with Hill clarifying that he went to Antigua to receive a stem cell injection.

McDaniel said he felt sadness rather than shock when he first watched the footage. He said the All-Pro could have handled the situation better but added that the officers’ reaction was “unnecessary” and that a conversation about what provoked the incident was “trivial.”

Although Hill was adamant about his desire for Torres’ termination, he said he would not be protesting and did not want to “defund the police.” He reiterated that he “loves” the police and wants to be an officer one day — but he hopes that, as with football, people can watch the tape and “get better from it.”

Hill has been at the center of numerous off-field incidents since joining the Dolphins in 2022, including a physical altercation with a Haulover Marina employee in June 2023 and a lawsuit that alleges he broke a social media influencer’s leg earlier this year.

McDaniel said Hill is “a different human being” than when they first met, and Hill, 30, said he believes he has grown over the past few years.

“This happened at the right time in my life because the way I’ve matured, the way I’ve been handling myself with my kids, stepping up as a father, just all of that, man,” Hill said Wednesday. “The older I’ve been getting, man, the more I’ve been realizing how important it is for me to just be a pro’s pro. Obviously when you first come into the league, you just want to have fun, do whatever you want to do. But I’ve done all that. I now see how important it is to be a father, be a husband, be a son and just be that family man that my grandparents raised me to be, man.

“So that’s the maturity [McDaniel is] talking about. When my teammates see me now, I’m with my wife, I’m with my kids. I’m enjoying life, man. I’m slowing my life down. I’m not doing the crazy things that I used to do when I first came into the league. I’m handling myself with a lot of dignity now in a lot of respects.”

Speaking with a small group of reporters in Pittsburgh, NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell expressed frustration with the incident in Miami and said the union offered support to Hill and the other affected Dolphins players.

“As a human being, shocked, dismay, disappointment, anger, frustration that here we are, guys about to go to their place of employment and work and you’re getting thrown to the ground, dragged out of your car, you’re kissing asphalt,” Howell said of his reaction. “That’s not, I think, good for anyone.

“… I think on a go-forward basis, it’s a function of communication no matter what your circumstances are is to take care of yourself, your family, and hopefully that’ll translate to the field. So that’s where things are now. I know there’s investigations and things of that sort. It’s not my place to weigh in on that, but we’re trying to be as supportive of our players, our members as they go through everyday life as well as what happens on the field.”

Howell said the NFLPA works to educate its members on what to do in similar situations as a part of several off-the-field enrichment and educational programs.

“These are professionals who have been in the limelight for quite some time and, at the club level as well as at the PA, we’re constantly talking about be aware of your surroundings and this, that and the other,” Howell said. “We’ll continue to do that, but I think it was Scottie Scheffler also got stopped on his way to a significant golf event. So, it’s happening everywhere evidently.

“We want to make sure that for our guys, they’re aware. … Certainly, someone of Tyreek and Calais’ [Campbell] stature brings it home, so we’re making sure that we learn from it and then we also can advise the guys on what to look out for.”

ESPN’s Brooke Pryor contributed to this report.

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