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Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins was handcuffed and placed face down on the ground by police during a traffic stop because he was not “immediately cooperative” with officers, the president of the South Florida police union said in a statement Monday.
Passing fans and some teammates saw Hill in handcuffs with at least three officers around him following the stop outside the team’s home stadium that quickly went viral just hours before the Dolphins kicked off their season Sunday.
Hill later said he felt he was respectful and didn't know why the officers placed him in handcuffs.
“I have no idea, for real,” Hill said Sunday after the game. “I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way. Didn’t cuss. Didn’t do none of that. So like I said, I’m still trying to figure it out, man.”
Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said Hill was handcuffed according to the police department's policy.
“Before the Dolphins game yesterday, an incident occurred where Tyreek Hill was placed in handcuffs before being released,” Stahl said in a statement. "First, to be clear, at no time was he ever under arrest. He was briefly detained for officer safety, after driving in a manner in which he was putting himself and others in great risk of danger.
“Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on the scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs. Mr. Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground. Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave.”
A police officer was temporarily placed on administrative leave after the incident and the department has begun an internal review. Miami-Dade Police director Stephanie Daniels told the Miami Herald on Monday that the decision to place the officer on leave came after a review of the body camera footage from the roadside incident.
The Miami-Dade police department has declined an Associated Press request for the footage, citing the open and ongoing internal investigation.
Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, released a statement commending the department's immediate launch of an investigation.
“In recent years, our nation has confronted important conversations on the use of force," she said, "and the internal review process will answer questions about why the troubling actions shown in public video footage were taken by the officer."
Hill said the officers told him he was pulled over for speeding and reckless driving, but added that he didn't know why the situation escalated the way it did.
Hill's teammate, defensive tackle Calais Campbell, was also briefly handcuffed after he said he tried to de-escalate the situation. Campbell said he was on his way to the game when he saw Hill handcuffed.
“They were trying to yank him down to the ground,” Campbell said Monday on ESPN. “I saw them kick him and pull him down, I mean, pulling (on) the cuffs; shoulders looked like they were messing up. They kind of got him down. I feel like one officer was pushing on his head.”
Campbell said he got out of his car with his hands up above his head and approached the scene, informing officers that he was a friend of Hill's. He remained at the scene to “support” Hill after he said officers asked him to leave. Police later placed him in handcuffs for “disobeying a direct order" by being too close to the scene.
This isn’t the first off-field incident involving Hill.
He was accused of punching his girlfriend in college and got kicked off the team at Oklahoma State, later pleading guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation. In 2019, prosecutors in suburban Kansas City declined to charge Hill after an alleged domestic violence incident involving his fiancée and their 3-year-old child.
Last offseason, Hill was under investigation by Miami-Dade police for assault and battery after it was reported that he got into an argument with a South Florida marina worker, which apparently ended with Hill hitting the worker. Hill and the man later resolved their dispute.
