MIAMI – New video surfaced on Sept 10 showing police officers forcefully removing Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill from his car and throwing him to the ground during a heated traffic stop ahead of his team’s home opener a day earlier.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said it was releasing the available body cam footage while continuing to investigate the incident. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump posted a three-minute and 35-second clip from the footage on X.
The video begins with a police officer asking Hill through his open car window why he did not have his seat belt on. After a brief exchange Hill rolls up his window up and the officer knocks on it, ordering him to roll it down.
Hill partially rolls the window down and the officer tells him to get out of the car. Another officer quickly comes over, opens the car door and grabs Hill by the back of the head, forcing him face down on the pavement as he puts him in handcuffs with a knee pressed against his back.
Officers then pick the still-handcuffed Hill back up and lead him to the sidewalk, where they ask him to sit.
Hill asks them to slow down because he “just had surgery on my knee” as an officer grabs him from behind from around the neck and forces him into a seated position on the curb.
The Miami-Dade Police Department on Sept 9 opened an Internal Affairs investigation into the matter and one of the officers involved in the incident has been placed on administrative duties while the review is conducted.
“I was shocked,” the 30-year-old Hill, who has 2.7 million followers on Instagram, told CNN on Sept 10.
“It was crazy because it all happened so fast. I couldn’t really gather everything. Me being a father, me being a husband in that situation I was saying: ‘Hey, I’ve got to be smart’.”
The Miami Dolphins responded to the video with a statement posted on X that described the police action as “maddening and heartbreaking”, calling for “swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behaviour”.
“It is a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace... ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ is a question that will carry with resounding impact,” the team said.
‘Great risk’
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