Tyreek Hill says he could have handled his traffic stop better, but still wants to fire the officer

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill acknowledged Wednesday that he could have handled himself better in the opening moments of a weekend traffic stop in which he was handcuffed and dragged from his car by police officers near the team's stadium.

Hill also said he wanted one of the officers involved in the incident to be fired from the police force.

Hill said he wished he had done some things “a little differently” on Sunday morning, such as leaving his car window closed when officers asked him to do so. Instead, he rolled the window up. From there, the incident quickly escalated.

“I have to say, I could have done better,” Hill said. “I could have rolled down my window at that moment. But the thing about me is, I don't want attention. I don't want to be there with cameras and cell phones out at that moment. But at the end of the day, I'm only human. I have to follow rules. I have to do what anybody else would do.”

“Does that give them the right to literally beat me up? Absolutely not,” Hill continued. “But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a little differently.”

Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie Daniels launched an internal investigation Sunday afternoon and one officer was placed on administrative leave. That officer, Danny Torres, wants to be reinstated immediately, his attorney said this week. Meanwhile, the Dolphins have said they want “swift and decisive action” against all officers involved.

Hill did not mince his words when outlining what action he believes should be taken against the officer.

“Gone. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. He's got to go, man,” Hill said. “At that moment, not only did he mistreat me, he disrespected my teammates. He said some crazy words about them and they didn't even do anything. Like, what did they do to you?”

Hill was dragged from his car near his team's stadium less than three hours before kickoff of Miami's first game. He was laid on the ground and handcuffed, and his teammate Calais Campbell — who drove past the scene of the accident and stopped to play peacemaker — was also handcuffed by police during the incident.

Hill was charged with reckless driving and failure to wear a seat belt.

The Dolphins play the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, and Hill said he would use the game as therapy to escape thoughts of the incident. He said he would not take a knee – a move many players have used in recent years to protest police brutality – or call for defunding police. Hill has said several times in recent days that he has respect for police officers and that he intends to work in law enforcement after his playing days.

Body camera footage of the incident released by the Miami-Dade Police Department on Monday evening showed that the traffic stop quickly escalated after Hill rolled up his car window.

Hill rolled down the driver's side window and gave his license to a police officer who had been knocking on the window. Hill — an eight-time Pro Bowl player who led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards last season — then repeatedly told the officer to stop knocking before rolling the dark-tinted window back up.

After a back and forth around the window, bodycam video shows an officer pulling Hill out of his car by his arm and head, then pushing him face-first onto the ground. Officers handcuffed Hill and one pressed his knee into the middle of his back.

In the footage, Hill can be heard repeatedly yelling that he had just had knee surgery as police officers forced him to the ground. The receiver said Wednesday he underwent a small stem cell procedure on his knee during the offseason in Antigua. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel called it a procedure that Hill is “making sure he takes care of.”

Hill said he was at a movie theater Monday night when he got the news that the footage was being released. He left the theater to watch it and said he hopes people who see the video — both civilians and police officers — use it as a tool to learn and improve, even drawing a parallel to the way football players improve by watching game film.

“It's shocking, man,” Hill said. “It's really crazy to know that there are police officers in this world doing this with their body cameras on. That's sad. That's really sad. That starts another conversation and leads to 'What would they do if they didn't have body cameras?' Which is even crazier.”

Lloyd Howell Jr., executive director of the NFL Players Association, said the organization has reached out to Hill and Campbell to provide them with the “necessary support,” but he did not provide details on what that support would be.

“I think it's a matter of communication moving forward,” Howell said. “No matter what your circumstances are, take care of yourself and your family, and hopefully that translates to the field. That's what it looks like right now.”

NBA player Bam Adebayo said Hill should have followed officers' orders and rolled down his window as instructed. He also said it was difficult to see what happened next.

“For me, it's being dragged out of the car, being thrown on the ground, having his knee on his back and you can kind of hear him talking, but because the cop has so much weight on his back, he can barely talk,” the Miami Heat captain said. “I never want to get pulled over and catch a cop on a bad day. That reminds me that they don't care who you are. Some of that escalated to a point where it could have gotten ugly for him. We've heard that story many times, countless times.”

The confrontation and what was seen on the bodycam videos of the six police officers has once again brought the experiences of black people with the police to the forefront – a topic that has been discussed nationwide for some time.

Hill has been involved in off-field incidents before, but his teammates have spoken out this week condemning those who have used Hill's past allegations of violence as justification for excessive use of force. McDaniel said Wednesday that Hill continues to grow as a person and that he has spoken to him several times about why that is important. He also acknowledged that Hill could have handled the incident differently, without giving away specifics.

“A conversation about what provoked the unnecessary,” McDaniel said, “is trivial compared to the unnecessary.”

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AP Sportswriter Will Graves contributed from Pittsburgh.