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NFL star Tyreek Hill wants police officer involved in traffic stop detainment fired

Officer put on administrative duties after Sunday’s incident ahead of Miami Dolphins’ season opener

Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins reacts after his team's 20-17 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Photograph: Megan Briggs/Getty Images
Wed Sept 11 2024 - 16:52

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill wants one of the police officers involved with his detainment on Sunday to be fired.

“We are demanding for the immediate termination of the officer that has been placed on administrative leave,” Hill said in a statement released through his lawyer, Julius Collins, on Tuesday night.

“Each action that a law enforcement official [takes] is governed by standard operating procedures. We are of the opinion that the officer’s use of force was excessive, escalating, and reckless. We are demanding that the officer be terminated effective immediately.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the Miami-Dade police department announced the identity of the officer who is under investigation over the detainment. Danny Torres is in his 27th year on the job. According the department’s statement, Torres “remains in administrative duties, as the Internal Affairs investigation is still ongoing. We will provide further information once it becomes available pending the outcome of the investigation.”

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The officer’s lawyers issued a statement requesting their client be immediately reinstated. The attorneys also stated they support the call for a review of the incident made by Miami-Dade police department director Stephanie Daniels. According to the statement, Torres won’t comment on the matter until the investigation is completed.

Hill received citations for reckless driving and driving without a license after being pulled close to Hard Rock Stadium hours before Sunday’s game, in which Hill scored a touchdown to help seal a 20-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The body cam footage released on Monday evening showed that the traffic stop hours before Miami’s season opener escalated quickly after Hill put up the window of his car.

Hill rolled down the driver’s side window and handed his license to an officer who had been knocking on the window. Hill then told the officer repeatedly to stop knocking before rolling the darkly tinted window back up. After a back and forth about the window, the body camera video shows an officer pull Hill out of his car by his arm and head and then force him face-first on to the ground. Officers handcuffed Hill and one put a knee in the middle of his back.

Other members of the Dolphins said they had been affected by the incident.

“It’s been hard for me not to find myself more upset the more I think about it,” said Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, speaking on Monday before the footage was released. “I think the thing that [messes] me up, honestly, to be quite frank, is knowing that I don’t know exactly ... know what that feels like.”

McDaniel, who is biracial, said his life experience has left him “aware” of conversations about race, while never having been in a similar situation to Hill’s.

Many Miami players were confused after seeing Hill’s team-mate, Calais Campbell, get handcuffed. Campbell, a widely respected defensive tackle who just began his 17th NFL season, stopped to help when he saw Hill in handcuffs, but ended up briefly handcuffed as well. Hill and Campbell were eventually released and allowed to go into the stadium.

“If I’m Calais Campbell and I’m 38 years old and you’re going to work, whatever personal innocence that you have relative to – you’re a gigantic, strong, just a miraculous man that has done right in all ways, shapes and forms. There’s just elements to that that is very triggering,” McDaniel said.

Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who is black, also referred to the video footage as triggering and reflected on his own life. “It’s unfortunate in this day and time,” Weaver said, “when I have two boys – my wife is Mexican-American – and both the times that they were born and they were light-skinned, there was almost a sense of relief in that they were going to avoid some of the same issues that I’ve had to deal with throughout my life.”

Hill is one of the best receivers in the NFL, and has been named to the Pro Bowl in every season since he entered the league in 2016. He led the league in receiving last season with a career high 1,799 yards. He won the Super Bowl with his previous team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in February 2020. He was traded to the Dolphins in March 2022 and signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL.

Sunday’s incident wasn’t the first time Hill has come into contact with Miami-Dade police. Last off-season, Hill was under investigation by the department for assault and battery after it was reported that he got into an argument with a marina worker, which apparently ended with Hill hitting the worker. Hill and the man later resolved their dispute. – Guardian