Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that a controversial traffic stop could have turned tragic were he not a famous figure, telling her the story could have been “Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium, you know?”
Hill was roughed up and handcuffed by cops during a traffic stop Sunday morning just outside the stadium, hours before the season open. Recently released body cam video shows the apparent provocation — cops got angry when Hill closed his car window and didn’t reopen it quickly enough:
On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins asked Hill about the moment the stop escalated and asked what he meant when he said things could have gone differently:
K. COLLINS: –can you just, can you tell us what happened with the moment with – you didn’t see it there in the video. But you’re in the car. They’re yelling at you to roll your window down. What was happening there?
HILL: You know what? When the officer came up, and knocked on my window, I let my window down, cooperated. Gave him my ID. And then, I immediately let up my window. And then, after that, I let — I let back up my window.
And then he came back to the window, and was like, let your window down now, let your window down now. And then, I let it down. That’s when he said, If you don’t let your window down, I’m going to snatch you out of the car. I was like, sir, my window is down, like, what do you want?
I’m not trying to cause a scene. Because A, if I let my window down, like people walking by, driving by, they’re going to notice is that it’s me, and they going to start taking pictures. And I — like I — like I didn’t want to create a scene at all, like, I just really wanted to get the ticket, and then just go on about my way, and then just, you know, just have a great Sunday. You know what I’m saying?
Because really, like, I really could have just kept going to the stadium, but I really just pulled to the side, just chilling, because I was — I was that close to the stadium, like I was that close to, like, our entry level on, like I was that close to the players entry level.
And then, from that moment, the guy came from the back, he was like, Hey, get out. He was like, Hey, I’m about to snatch you out the car, or whatever. You know what I’m saying? And then it just all unfolded from there.
Because I was going to get out my car. You know what I’m saying? Because they told me to get out. Because I was getting out my car. By the way, that my car is made, there’s like a dip inside my McLaren some 20 years (ph).
K. COLLINS: Yes.
HILL: So.
K. COLLINS: Well it–
HILL: It’s–
K. COLLINS: –it happened so quickly. I mean, it’s like, right after they direct you to open the door, it’s like seconds later when the — when you open it, and then you’re pulled from the car.
And I saw that you said, if you weren’t Tyreek Hill that you feared–
HILL: Yes.
K. COLLINS: –this could have ended a lot differently. What do you think could have happened?
HILL: Yes, like, so the crazy part about it is, I hate talking like this, man, but because I have a kid (ph) fan base. But the reality of it is, it’s the truth.
If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would have had a different article, you know? Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium, you know? Or that’s worst-case scenario. Or Tyreek Hill put in handcuffs and taken in and booked, you know?
But it’s crazy that I, you know, me and my family had to go through this, you know? So.
K. COLLINS: Yes.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
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