Tyreek Hill says he could have handled the traffic stop better.

Sports News

Hill was pulled over for careless driving and not wearing a seat belt and ended up being handcuffed.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill acknowledged Wednesday that he could have handled the situation better the first time he was pulled over for a traffic violation over the weekend near the team’s stadium and then handcuffed and pulled from his car by officers.

Hill also said he wants one of the officers involved in the incident fired from the police force.

Hill said he wished he had done “a little differently” on Sunday morning, such as leaving his car window open when instructed by officers to do so. He rolled it down instead. The incident escalated quickly from there.

“I could have done better,” Hill said. “I could have opened the window at that moment. But I don’t want attention. I don’t want cameras or cell phones pointed at me at that moment. But at the end of the day, I’m a human being. I have to follow the rules. I have to do what everybody else does.”

“So does that give them the right to literally beat me up? Absolutely not,” Hill continued. “But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do some things a little differently.”

Miami-Dade County Police Chief Stephanie Daniels opened an internal investigation Sunday afternoon and placed one officer on administrative duty. That officer, Danny Torres, wants to be immediately reinstated, his lawyer said this week, while the Dolphins said they want to take “swift and strong action” against all officers involved.

Hill didn’t mince words when detailing what action he thinks should be taken against the officers.

“Not anymore. Not anymore. Not anymore. Not anymore. He should be gone,” Hill said. “Not only did he treat me badly in that moment, he treated my teammates with disrespect. He said crazy things to them and they didn’t do anything. What did they do to you? They’re just walking down the sidewalk. He should be gone.”

Hill was dragged from his car near the team’s stadium less than three hours before kickoff of Miami’s Week 1 game, pinned to the ground and handcuffed, and teammate Calais Campbell, who was passing by and stopped his car to try to intervene, was also handcuffed by police during the incident.

Hill was charged with careless driving and failure to wear a seat belt.

The Dolphins play the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, and Hill said he will use the game as therapy and a way to take his mind off the incident. He said he will not take a knee, as many players have done in recent years to protest police brutality, or call for defunding the police. Hill has said multiple times in recent days that he respects police officers and plans to work in law enforcement after he retires.

“Right now, my focus is on my job, which is to play football,” Hill said. “That’s all I can be. To be the best football player I can be.”

Body camera footage of the incident released by Miami-Dade Police on Monday night showed the traffic stop quickly escalating after Hill rolled down his car window.

Hill rolled down his driver’s side window and handed his license to the officer who was knocking on the window. Hill, one of the most accomplished and dynamic athletes in sports, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection who led the NFL with 1,799 yards receiving last season, repeatedly told the officer to stop knocking and rolled the dark-tinted window up again.

After multiple exchanges around the window, body camera footage shows officers grabbing Hill’s arms and head, dragging him out of the car and forcing him face down on the ground, then handcuffing him and one of the officers putting a knee on the center of his back.

In the video, as officers wrestle Hill to the ground, he can be heard yelling repeatedly that he had just had knee surgery. Hill said Wednesday that he had a minor stem cell treatment on his knee in Antigua during the offseason, a procedure that Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Hill was “making sure he heals properly.”

Hill said he was in the movie theater on Monday night when he was notified that the video was being released. He left the theater to watch the video, and said he hopes people who see it — both civilians and police officers — will use it as a way to learn and improve, much like a football player might watch game tape to improve.

“It’s shocking,” Hill said. “I just can’t believe there’s anything in the world that an officer with a body camera on would literally do something like that. It’s sad. It’s really sad. And it opens up another conversation, which is, ‘What would they do if they didn’t have a body camera?’, which makes it even crazier.”

The altercation, and what was captured on body camera footage from the six officers, has once again brought to the forefront a debate about Black people’s interactions with police that has been a national topic of conversation for some time.

Hill has had previous off-field incidents, but teammates this week spoke out against those who use Hill’s past allegations of violence to justify the use of excessive force. McDaniel said Wednesday that Hill continues to grow as a person and that he has had multiple conversations with Hill about why that’s important. He also acknowledged that Hill could have handled the incident differently but declined to provide details.

“Any conversation about what triggered something unnecessary is inconsequential to someone who doesn’t need it,” McDaniel said.