Miami-Dade County police on Monday night released body camera footage taken by officers during the controversial handcuffing of Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill a day earlier.
Officers stopped Hill in his black McLaren 720S late Sunday morning outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens as he arrived to get ready for the Dolphins’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Several passersby filmed the encounter and posted videos on social media showing officers handcuffing Hill and throwing him to the ground.
The first video the agency posted showed Hill’s sports car being pulled over at the stadium and showed an officer at his window during the traffic stop. Hill can be heard saying, “Don’t knock on my window like that,” as the officer told him to knock to let Hill know he was there.
“Why did you hang it?” the office asked.
Once the window is down, you see Hill say, “Just give me my ticket, bro. Then I can go. I’m gonna be late.”
The footage shows the officer returning, finding the window open again, and demanding that Hill open the window again.
From there, the officer orders Hill out of the vehicle. “Get out of the car right now,” he said. “We’re not playing this game.”
The footage then shows several officers tackling Hill to the ground as the player tells someone on the phone, “I’m being arrested.”
About six minutes into the confrontation, one of the officers asks his colleague, “Do you know who that is? He’s one of the star players on the Dolphins.”
The MDPD press release contains much more footage that the Miami Herald has not yet viewed.
Media outlets including the Miami Herald requested footage from the officers’ body cameras. Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie Daniels released the video with a statement around 6:15 p.m. Monday. The Herald is reviewing the nearly two hours of footage and will report on its contents.
“In our commitment to transparency and maintaining the public trust, we are releasing the body camera footage (BWC) related to the recent incident involving Tyreek Hill. While standard protocol is to release body camera footage after the internal review is complete, the available body camera footage — a total of 105 minutes and 33 seconds — is being released the day following the incident to underscore the Department’s commitment to keeping the public informed.”
“The department is committed to conducting a thorough, objective investigation into this matter, and we will continue to inform the public of the outcome of that process.
