NFL star Tyreek Hill was arrested on Sunday, right before the Dolphin’s season opening game, though it’s hard to say exactly why. Body camera footage from the incident appears to show the arresting officers escalating the situation all because of Hill’s window.
The incident happened on September 8 right outside the Hard Rock Stadium. In body camera footage from the arrest posted to X by Andy Slater, it shows four motorcycle officers stopping Hill in his McLaren, two of which walked right up to his window. The main officer at the window — now identified as Manuel Batista — can be heard asking Hill why he doesn’t have a seatbelt on. There’s a bit of back and forth that can’t be made out before the officer turns away and Hill rolls up his window.
Batista then knocks on the window and tells him to keep the window down. Hill rolls the window down a bit and says something to Batist to which he says again to keep the window down or they’re going to arrest him. Batista immediately switches up and tells Hill to get out of the car. Another officer appears out of nowhere and says get out or “we’re going to break that fucking window. We’re not playing this game.” Hill appears to be in the process of opening the McLaren’s door before that same officer forcefully pulls the door open and pulls Hill out by his neck and arm.
At this point, Hill’s door has four officers surrounding it, including the one whose camera is recording; three of the officers — including Batista — pull Hill to the ground. One officer can be heard yelling at Hill and saying “When we say do something you fucking do it.” What follows is nearly two more minutes of them unnecessarily escalating the situation. At one point, they have Hill sit on the sidewalk, but instead of letting him sit himself, one of the officers is pushing him down by his shoulder. Hill keeps telling them he just had surgery on his knee; presumably this means he has to sit down slowly. A second officer then comes and forcibly pushes him down, yelling something about him not putting his window down. Hill’s Dolphins teammates Calais Campbell and Jalen Waddle pull up and try to deescalate the situation before the cops yell at them to back up. They then start harassing Waddle for his license. “Your license right now!” one of the cops can be heard yelling.
The whole situation has resulted in the Miami Police Department launching an internal investigation and one of the officers taken off street duty. Speaking to NBC News about the incident, Hill says he could have been shot had he not been who he is or had there been what he calls a “worst case scenario.” “It just went from 0 to 60, man, from the moment that those guys pulled up behind me, knocked on my window, it went from 0 to 60 immediately,” he told NBC.
Police cited Hill for reckless driving and driving without a license, according to NBC. Hill says he was glad his pregnant wife wasn’t there during the incident. Hill went on to play in Sunday’s game and helped the Dolphins score a victory. While he hasn’t retained a lawyer over the incident, the officer that was pulled from duty has. Ignacio Alvarez, who’s representing the officer, says being pulled from duty was premature. “We call for our client’s immediate reinstatement, and a complete, thorough, and objective investigation,” Alverez said in a statement to NBC News.