Miami-Dade police’s handling of Tyreek Hill situation was ‘outrageous,’ Patriots player says

"They acted like (Tyreek) murdered somebody.”

Dolphins star Tyreek Hill was arrested on the way to Miami’s season-opener, and the footage of the arrest drew strong emotions from many people.

Consider Patriots defensive lineman Davon Godchaux, who is also a former Dolphins player, among them.

Godchaux told MassLive’s Karen Guregian that he believed the police’s handling of the situation was out of hand.

The video showed policed officers yanking Hill out of his car and forcing him onto the pavement face-first during a traffic stop.

“That was outrageous. They acted like (Tyreek) murdered somebody,” Godchaux told MassLive. “That was uncalled for, jacking him out of the car, putting his hand around his neck to the ground. (Tyreek) said he just had a knee operation or whatever. So it was uncalled for, man. There has to be some type of consequences.”

Hill gave his perspective on the incident during his media availability Wednesday. He called for the officers involved to be fired. Hill wasn’t the only Dolphins player to be arrested that day.

Hill was able to play in the game and mimicked the arrest during one of his touchdown celebrations. But the situation was no laughing matter, Godchaux said.

“This could have happened to anyone, like Tyreek is 5-foot-5, 5-foot-8, whatever,” Godchaux said. “He’s not going to do anything. Then Calais Campbell, Jonnu Smith, those guys are checking on their teammates, and they’re going to arrest those guys?

“I know me, I’m claustrophobic, so I just imagined a cop pushing my head to the ground, a knee into my back,” Godchaux added. “Hands behind your back. I’d be in a panic … I don’t know how he was able to go play the game. Hats off to him. I would have been hot.”

Hill admitted that he wishes he could have taken back some of his actions, such as rolling up his window near the beginning of the interaction.

“I will say I could have been better,” Hill told reporters. “I could have let down my window in that instance. But the thing about me is, I don’t want attention, I don’t want to be — cameras out, phones on you, in that moment,”

“At the end of the day, I’m human I’ve got to follow rules, I’ve got to do what everyone else would do,” Hill added. “Now, does that give them the right to literally beat the dog out of me? Absolutely not. But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a little bit differently.”

Godchaux agreed that putting the window up probably wasn’t the best move.

“He probably could have handled it a little different, he probably could have rolled the window down,” Godchaux told MassLive. “In his case, though, I can see why he rolled the window up. People were passing by. He didn’t want people to know who he was. He’s Tyreek Hill. He’s famous. A lot of people love him in Miami.”