Video shows police removing Tyreek Hill from McLaren, pushing NFL star to ground: ‘0 to 60’

Tyreek Hill wouldn’t keep the window of his sports car down 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.

Body camera footage of the incident, which quickly escalated into Hill being forcibly removed from his black McLaren 720S, pushed to the ground face-first and handcuffed by officers, was released by the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Hill, who is black, was pulled over for speeding by a motorcycle cop while driving to the stadium. The video shows the cop knocking on the driver’s side window of the car and asking Hill to roll it down. Hill complied and handed the cop his driver’s license while repeatedly telling him not to knock on his window. Hill rolled up the window and the cop responded by raising his voice and repeatedly telling Hill to keep the window down.

More officers had arrived by then and Hill was pulled out of his car and pushed to the ground, with one officer placing his knee on Hill’s back while handcuffing him. “When you’re told to do something, you do it. Do you understand?” one officer said. “Do you understand? Not what you want, but what you’re told. You’re a little confused.”

Officers led Hill, handcuffed, to the sidewalk and one of them kicked him.

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After the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars — in which Hill scored an 80-yard touchdown and celebrated by placing his hands behind his back while 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 by, people driving by, are going to notice that it’s me,” Hill told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday night. “And they’re going to start taking pictures, and I didn’t want to cause a scene at all. I just wanted to get the ticket and go on my way.”

One of the officers apparently had no idea Hill was an NFL player.

An officer who was looking at Hill’s driver’s license questioned another officer about Hill’s behavior, saying, “Why is he acting like that? You know who he is, right?”

“No,” replied an officer who was not visible on camera.

“He’s one of the Dolphins’ star players,” said the officer who had Hill’s license.

“Oh yeah? Fuck,” the officer replied off-camera.

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The Dolphins released a statement after the body camera video was released, saying they were “saddened by the overly aggressive and violent behavior directed toward Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith,” and adding that “some officers are confusing their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power.”

Just over a minute had passed since Hill was arrested and dragged from the car.

“The temperature went from zero to 50 degrees, man, from the moment these guys pulled up behind me and knocked on my window, the temperature went from zero to 50 degrees immediately,” Hill said Monday in an interview with “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”

“I opened my door and I was going to go out, you know what I mean, but I felt like they wanted me to go fast.”

Hill was on the phone with Dolphins director of security Drew Brooks as he was pulled from the car, repeatedly saying, “I’m going to be arrested,” as officers handcuffed him. After being moved to the sidewalk, Hill told officers he had recently had knee surgery, and the officer who pulled him out of the car wrapped his arms around Hill’s shoulders and pinned him to the ground again.

The officer responded sarcastically when Hill mentioned his knee surgery.

“Oh, really? What a coincidence,” he said to Hill. “You had ear surgery when we asked you to roll down the window?”

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Hill responded by yelling, “Dude, calm down!”

Campbell, Hill’s teammate and a 17-year veteran who was voted the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2019, was also handcuffed after stopping his car and asking 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 “raised and hostile.”

“He was the one guy who was really agitating, really over the top,” Campbell said. “I thought, ‘All the other cops are pretty cool, calm down. He’s the one to watch.’ He was a real guy.”

Other Dolphins teammates also stopped their cars and were ordered to leave by police. Smith was ticketed, although he stayed away from the scene.

“I’m just glad my teammates were there to support me in that situation because I felt alone,” Hill said. “When they came in, I realized we had a good team this year, man, for them to put their lives on the line. It was amazing to see.”

Miami-Dade Police Department Director Stephanie V. Daniels said in a statement that an investigation into the incident is ongoing and that one of the officers involved has 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 once the internal review is complete, the available body camera footage – a total of 105 minutes and 33 seconds – is being released the day after the incident to reinforce the Department’s commitment to keeping the public informed.”

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Attorneys representing the officer who was placed on administrative duty released a statement Monday saying their client should be reinstated to active duty, calling the Miami-Dade Police Department’s swift action “premature.”

“We demand the immediate reinstatement of our client and a complete, thorough and objective investigation, as also recommended by Director Daniels,” attorneys Ignacio Alvarez and Israel Reyes said in a statement.

During an interview on “The Dan Le Batard Show,” Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, called for the officers to be fired.

“I think the officers that did this to Tyreek should not be in this situation, they should be released,” Rosenhaus said. “It’s horrible the way they treated him. They didn’t treat him like a human being.”

Hill was cited for reckless driving and a seat belt violation. The citation alleges a “visual estimate of 60 mph” and “heavy traffic” of pedestrians and vehicles. Campbell has not been charged.

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This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.