Police on power trip arrest Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill during traffic stop
NFL star Tyreek Hill is arrest on Sunday, just before the Dolphins’ season opener, though it’s hard to say exactly why. Body-worn camera footage From the incident it seems that the arresting police made the situation worse simply because of Hill’s window.
The incident occurred on September 8 outside Hard Rock Stadium. In body camera footage of the arrest posted to X by Andy Slater, the footage shows four officers on motorcycles pulling Hill over in his McLaren, two of whom go straight to his window. The primary officer at the window—now identified as Manuel Batista—can be heard asking Hill why he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. There’s a brief back-and-forth that can’t be clearly heard before the officers turn away and Hill rolls up his window.
Batista then knocked on the window and told him to roll it down. Hill rolled the window down a bit and said something to Batist, who told him to roll it down again or they would arrest him. Batista immediately changed his tune and told Hill to get out of the car. Another cop appeared out of nowhere and said “get out or we’ll break the damn window. We’re not playing this game.” Hill appeared to be in the process of opening the McLaren’s door before the same cop yanked the door open and pulled Hill out by the neck and arms.
At this point, Hill’s car door was surrounded by four officers, including the one with the camera recording; three officers—including Batista—pushed Hill to the ground. One officer can be heard yelling at Hill, saying, “Do what we tell you to do.” What followed was nearly two more minutes of them needlessly escalating the situation. At one point, they told Hill to sit on the sidewalk, but instead of letting him sit, one of the officers pushed him down by the shoulder. Hill repeatedly told them he had just had knee surgery; presumably this meant he had to sit down slowly. A second officer then came up and roughly pushed him down, yelling something about him not rolling down his window. Hill’s Dolphins teammates Calais Campbell and Jalen Waddle stopped and tried to de-escalate the situation before the officers yelled at them to back off. They then began harassing Waddle for his license. “Your license now!” one of the policemen shouted.
The whole situation has led to the Miami Police Department opening an internal investigation and one of the officers has been suspended from street duty. Speaking to NBC News Speaking about the incident, Hill said he could have been shot if he hadn’t been himself or if there had been what he called a “worst case scenario.” “It went from zero to 60, from the moment those guys stopped behind me, knocked on the car window, it went from zero to 60 instantly,” he told NBC.
Police cited Hill for reckless driving and driving without a license, according to NBC. Hill said he was glad his pregnant wife was not present during the incident. Hill played in Sunday’s game and helped the Dolphins win. Although he has not hired an attorney in the case, the officer was pulled from duty. Ignacio Alvarez, who represents the officer, said the removal was premature. “We call for our client’s immediate reinstatement and a full, thorough and impartial investigation,” Alverez said in a statement to NBC News.
