Tyreek Hill refused to roll down the window of his sports car when asked to do so by a police officer after the Miami Dolphins star receiver was pulled over for a traffic violation before Sunday's NFL season opener at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Miami-Dade Police Department released body camera footage of the incident that quickly escalated when Hill was forcibly removed from his black McLaren 720S, pushed to the ground face-first and handcuffed by officers.
An officer on a motorcycle pulled Hill over for speeding on the way to the stadium. The footage shows the officer knocking on the car's driver's side window and telling Hill to roll it down. Hill complied and handed the officer his driver's license while repeatedly telling him not to knock on his window. Hill rolled his window back up and the officer responded by raising his voice and repeatedly telling Hill to keep his window down.
By then, other officers had arrived and pulled Hill from his car, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him and led him to the sidewalk. “When we tell you to do something, you do it. Do you understand?” one officer said. “Do you understand? Not what you want, but what we’re telling you. You’re a little confused.”
After the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, during which Hill scored an 80-yard touchdown and celebrated by placing his hands behind his back as teammate Jaylen Waddle pretended to handcuff him, Hill said he wanted to keep his window up because he was “embarrassed” and didn't want people in passing cars to recognize him.
“If I roll down my window, people walking or driving by will notice it’s me,” Hill told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday night. “And they’ll start taking pictures, and I didn’t want to create a scene at all. All I wanted to do was get the ticket and then be on my way.”
One of the officers apparently had no idea Hill was an NFL player.
An officer who was checking Hill's driver's license asked another officer about Hill's behavior and said, “Why is he acting like that? You know who he is, right?”
“No,” an off-camera officer responded.
“That's one of the Dolphins' star players,” said the officer who had Hill's license.
“Oh, really? Fuck!” the officer replied off-camera.
The Dolphins issued a statement after the body camera video was released, saying they were “saddened by the overly aggressive and violent conduct directed toward Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith,” adding that “there are some officers who confuse their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power.”
It was just over a minute from the time Hill was stopped and removed from the car.
“It went from zero to 60, man, from the moment those guys pulled up behind me and knocked on my window, it went from zero to 60 immediately,” Hill said Monday in an interview with “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”
“I was opening my door and I was going to walk out, you know what I mean, but I felt like they wanted me to move quickly.”
Hill was on the phone with Dolphins security director Drew Brooks as he was being dragged out of the car, repeatedly saying, “You’re going to arrest me,” as officers handcuffed him. After being moved to the sidewalk, Hill told officers that he had recently had knee surgery, and the officer who had pulled him out of the car put his arms around his shoulders and forced him to the ground again.
The officer responded sarcastically when Hill mentioned his knee surgery.
“Really? What a coincidence,” he said to Hill. “Had you had ear surgery when we told you to roll down the window?”
Hill responded by shouting: “Easy there, bro!”
Campbell, Hill's teammate and a 17-year NFL veteran, was also handcuffed after he stopped his car and asked officers what was going on with Hill. Campbell, who appears in body camera footage slowly approaching the scene with his hands in the air, told Fox Sports that one officer in particular was “elevated and hostile.”
“He was the only one who was causing everything, extremely excessive,” Campbell said. “I thought, ‘All the other cops are very calm, relax. He’s the one to be careful of.’ He was definitely one guy.”
Other Dolphins teammates also stopped their cars and were ordered to leave by officers. Smith was issued a citation, even though he kept his distance from the scene.
“I’m glad my teammates were there to support me in that situation because I felt alone,” Hill said. “When they showed up, I realized we have a good team this year, man, for them to put their life on the line. It was amazing to see.”
Miami-Dade Police Department Chief Stephanie V. Daniels said in a statement that an investigation into the incident was underway and that one of the officers involved had been placed on administrative duty.
In a separate statement regarding the body camera video, Daniels said, “While standard protocol is to release body camera footage after the internal review has concluded, the available body camera footage (totaling 105 minutes and 33 seconds) is being released the day after the incident to reinforce the Department’s commitment to keeping the public informed.”
Hill was cited for reckless driving and not wearing a seat belt. Campbell was not charged.
