Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill made allegations against one of the police officers who arrested him Sunday in Miami.
Hill alleged during an interview on Amazon Prime Video ahead of the team’s “Thursday Night Football” game against the Buffalo Bills that one of the officers pinched him on the neck and tried to antagonize him.
“What people don’t know about, whenever I was handcuffed behind my back, the officer was pinching me on my neck, like trying to get me to do something to him,” Hill said. “It’s just crazy, next level crazy.”
Bodycam footage released by the Miami-Dade Police Department did not show a full uninterrupted shot of Hill’s neck during the arrest, but it did show the hands of multiple police officers’ hands near his neck at different times.
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Hill did not specifically name the police officer he alleges tried to antagonize him. The officer who put Hill in handcuffs is 27-year veteran Danny Torres.
Torres has since been assigned to administrative duties. The Miami-Dade Police director placed Torres on paid administrative duty after she said she reviewed the body camera footage from officers that day. Torres’ lawyers told Fox News Digital they are demanding that the officer be reinstated immediately.
“We call for our client’s immediate reinstatement, and a complete, thorough and objective investigation, as Director Daniels has also advocated. Our client will not comment until this investigation is concluded and the facts are fully revealed,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The footage showed Hill was originally pulled over for speeding while approaching Hard Rock Stadium Sunday. Hill was told by an officer to roll down his window, and he handed the officer his driver’s license and repeatedly told the officer not to knock on his window. The footage also shows the officer asking Hill to keep his window down. The incident escalated when Hill didn’t comply.
When the officer asked Hill to exit his vehicle, the wide receiver said, “I’m gonna get out, I’m gonna get out.” As the officer opened the door and removed Hill, the receiver said, “I’m getting out!” Then another officer grabbed Hill by the back of the head and neck area and forced him to the pavement to put him in handcuffs.
Hill was released after about 25 minutes, when his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, arrived. Hill was then heard telling officers he would “see y’all in court” before reentering his vehicle.
Hill and his attorneys called for Torres to be fired in a statement released Tuesday. On Wednesday, he doubled down on that stance in a team press conference.
DOLPHINS’ TYREEK HILL NOT BLAMELESS IN INCIDENT WITH POLICE OFFICERS, ESPN’S STEPHEN A SMITH SAYS
“Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. He gotta go man,” Hill said. “Because, in that instance right there, not only did he treat me bad. He also treated my teammates with disrespect. He had some crazy words toward them, and they ain’t even do nothing. Like, what did they do to you? They were just walking on the sidewalk. He gotta go man.”
The incident has incited several arguments about whether Hill or the police officer was in the wrong.
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith suggested Hill wasn’t excused from blame, but he insisted police acted with excessive force.
“When it comes to Tyreek Hill, we also can’t let him completely off the hook based on the statement that was made by the police department in Florida,” Smith said Tuesday on ESPN’s “First Take.”
“They said he was ‘uncooperative.’ We have a responsibility on this show and any kind of platform we can do make sure we’re doing anything we can to save lives, to make sure we’re doing what we can to ensure that somehow, some way, you get to live another day and fight that battle. We know how wrong they were. The police were excessive. No excuses. They should be ashamed of themselves, the way they acted. They just went overboard. Totally true.”
Former NBA star Charles Barkley made an appearance on Fox Sports 910 in Phoenix and criticized the media for focusing on Hill’s race throughout coverage of the incident.
“I hate that we’re gonna throw it in the media because you know the guys are gonna quickly go to race, and it bothers me,” Barkley explained. “We got so many fools in the media who love to play the race card. I said, ‘Wait a minute, they just did the same thing to Scottie Scheffler.’”
Hill said Wednesday the incident will not result in him taking a knee during the national anthem for Dolphins games, nor will he call for police to be defunded. Kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice became a flashpoint in the NFL during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement.
“Not for real, because like I said, I’m not going to mix the two,” the star wide receiver said. “I’m not going to take a knee. I’m not going to ask to defund the police. I’m not going to protest.”
The Miami-Dade Police Department had not responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment at the time of publication.
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