Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill said Wednesday that he wishes he ‘could go back and do things a bit differently’ during his encounter with police over the weekend, during which officers forcefully removed him from his car, took him to the ground and handcuffed him outside Hard Rock Stadium.
After watching the body-worn camera footage of the encounter, which was released Monday evening, Hill said he feels like ‘I handled myself well in that situation’ but also that he ‘could’ve been better.’ He said he has spoken with family members who are police officers and reflected on his actions during the traffic stop, when he rolled up his window after being asked by police to keep it rolled down.
‘Yes, I will say, I could’ve been better. I could’ve let down my window in that instance,’ Hill said in a news conference. ‘… 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. But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a bit differently.’
Hill, 30, was detained for about 15 minutes after a Miami-Dade Police Department officer pulled him over for careless driving and driving without a seat belt. Police estimated that the Dolphins star was going 60 mph – 20 mph over the posted speed limit – in a heavily-trafficked stretch of road before Miami’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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The officers involved in the traffic stop have come under scrutiny in recent days after the release of the body cam footage, with critics describing their use of force as excessive given the circumstances and otherwise routine nature of the encounter. Miami-Dade Police say one officer, Danny Torres, has been moved to administrative duties pending an internal investigation into his conduct during the stop.
Hill said he was at a movie theater on Monday when the Dolphins’ director of team security, Drew Brooks, called and notified him that body cam footage had been released. When asked about his initial reaction to the videos, Hill said he was ‘unfazed’ and ‘numb to it.’
‘I’m not the only one that goes through that, you feel me?’ Hill said. ‘Where I’m from, you typically see that a lot and you don’t hear about it, because not everybody has the same resources as Tyreek Hill. Not everybody has the name Tyreek Hill or is able to call a Drew Brooks or (agent) Drew Rosenhaus.’
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said of his initial response to the video that ‘it wasn’t shock, it was sadness.’ He believes the conversations around Hill’s attitude and conduct during the traffic stop should be completely separate of what the officers did.
‘There’s always things you can do (better),’ McDaniel said. ‘… But I think a conversation about what provoked unnecessary is trivial to the unnecessary.’
Hill believes that Sunday’s traffic stop, which resulted in him receiving two citations and about $300 in fines, happened ‘at the right time in my life, because of the way I’ve matured, the way I’ve been handling myself.’ He reiterated that, while he thinks Torres should be fired, he is supportive of police and hopes the incident can lead to positive conversations.
‘It’s a lot to unpack. There’s a lot we can learn,’ Hill said. ‘I think in football, how we get better from things is we watch the tape and we get better from it. In this instance, we should do the same, you know? A lot of people want to critique, a lot of people want to criticize, a lot of people want to do this (or that). But I think this can be a learning tool for everybody.’
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
