A former police officer is accusing Tyreek Hill of lying about the situation surrounding his arrest on Sunday for reckless driving.
Ex-cop turned conservative social media influencer Brandon Tatum accused the Dolphins wide receiver of ‘lying to the world’ about his brief arrest by Miami Dade Police officers.
Bodycam footage released on Monday showed Hill pleading with police as he was dragged out of his car and forced onto the ground while cuffed as one officer put a knee into the wide receivers back.
While the actions of Miami Dade Police have received criticism from the Miami Dolphins and football fans, Tatum dissected parts of the footage and pointed out areas where Hill went wrong in his interactions with police.
Tatum reviewed the part of the footage where officers knocked on Hill’s window telling him to roll it down.
Fallout from the arrest of Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill continues
Hill was cited for reckless driving and operating without a license on Sunday before a game
After Hill rolled his window down, he told officers, ‘Don’t knock on my window like that’ and ‘give me my ticket bro so I can go, I’m finna be late gang. Do what you gotta do.’
Hill then rolls his window back up in the footage, leading cops to tell him to keep the window down.
An incredulous Tatum says, ‘Y’all n***** can’t do nothing like you’re supposed to. Why? Bro, you’re the one speeding.’
After mocking the way Hill told officers to not knock on his window and for cops to just do their job, Tatum then said, ‘That ain’t how a traffic stop work bro. You speeding. You’re probably going so fast you’re criminally speeding – which is a crime, they can arrest you and put you in jail.
‘And you rolled the window down and rolled the window back up. Why you mad at them ’cause you speeding? Roll your window down.’
The bodycam footage then shows officers telling Hill to get out of the car – with the wide receiver heard saying, ‘I’m finna get out’.
But before Hill had the chance to open the door, officers wrenched the door open and dragged him out of his car.
Former police officer Brandon Tatum criticized Hill, accusing him of lying about the situation
Police officers wrenched open the door to Hill’s car and dragged him out of it in the footage
Tatum watched the video and was still surprised that Hill wasn’t complying with orders from police.
‘Roll the window down, or we’re gonna make you get out of the car. [mocking noises] Get out of the car, he still don’t get out… I’m sick of playing with y’all, you got all these cops here ’cause you silly.’
Later in the video, Tatum then reviews a press conference that Hill gave where he said he didn’t know why cops arrested him and calls him a liar.
‘You lyin’ to the world. Now the body-worn camera [footage] came out, “I don’t have no idea why they put me in handcuffs” – the cop told you.
‘He actually warned you, then he told you, “Imma pull you out of the car, keep the window down.”Why are you rolling the window up?
‘That’s an officer safety issue. They don’t know this man. He could be pulling a g*n out. Keep the window down. They asked you a simple question. You’re the one at fault, not them.’
Hill was eventually released and went on to play on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars
Hill later told CNN that the reason he rolled his window back up is so that bystanders did not recognize him as the whole affair was going down.
‘I’m not trying to cause a scene because if I let me window down, people walking by and driving by they’re going to know that it’s me and they’re going to start taking pictures,’ he said.
‘I didn’t want to create a scene at all. I just really wanted to get the ticket and then go on my way and have a great Sunday.’
Hill added: ‘It was crazy – me being a father, me being a husband. I was just putting myself in that situation (thinking): Hey, I got to be smart. That’s why I really wasn’t on that kind of energy. I was chilling, I was following rules.’
At least one officer who detained Hill did not know who the wide receiver was – with another cop having to inform him.
‘Why is he acting up like that?’ one officer asked, as Hill could be heard shouting in the background. ‘You know who that is right?
His colleague – believed to have been the first cop to approach Hill’s car after it was pulled over – replied: ‘No?’
They were then informed it was ‘one of the Dolphins’ star players’, to which they responded: ‘Oh yeah?’
Cops were heard telling the NFL star to ‘stop crying’ after they had dragged him out of his car
Minutes earlier, the wide receiver was placed in handcuffs near Hard Rock Stadium while driving to the Dolphins’ season opener against Jacksonville. ‘Take me to jail… do what you have to do,’ Hill told the officers.
He was instead released but the 30-year-old has previously speculated about what might have happened to him if he was not a high-profile NFL star.
He told NBC: ‘If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, Lord knows… worst-case scenario, I would have been shot or would have been locked up’.
Elsewhere in the video, cops were heard telling the NFL star to ‘stop crying’ after they had dragged him out of his car and put him face down on to the road.
‘When we tell you to do something, you do it. You understand? Not what you want, what we tell you. You’re a little f****** confused,’ an officer told him.
A Florida police union claimed that Hill was driving dangerously when he was pulled over on Sunday and that he was cuffed after refusing to cooperate. Hill said he has ‘no idea’ what sparked his detainment.
‘You know who that is right?’ one cop asked his fellow officer, who simply replied: ‘No?’
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Tyreek Hill was pulled over by police for ‘driving dangerously’ in Miami – before being cuffed and pinned to the ground after ‘refusing to cooperate’
One clip of bodycam footage begins with an officers approaching Hill’s car. The receiver can be seen handing over his license before telling the cop to ‘do what you got to do.’
The 30-year-old then put his window up, prompting officers to tap on the car and tell Hill: ‘Hey, keep that window down!’
Before long, the receiver is dragged from the car and forced down on to the road. A cop then puts his knee on the receiver’s back and grabs his hands as a fellow officer puts on handcuffs.
Hill was released a few minutes later but not before his teammate Calais Campbell was also put in cuffs.
On Monday night, the Dolphins described the bodycam video as ‘both maddening and heartbreaking’.
The team vowed to stand with Hill and called for ‘swift and strong action’ against the officers guilty of ‘overly aggressive’, ‘violent’ and ‘despicable’ behavior.
Over the weekend, Miami-Dade Police revealed that a cop has been placed on administrative duties pending an internal investigation.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
