The brother of the Miami-Dade police officer who was placed on administrative duties in connection to the detainment of Tyreek Hill believes his sibling did nothing wrong during the incident.
Last weekend, Hill was pulled over and detained outside of Hard Rock Stadium at approximately 10:18 a.m. - mere hours before the Miami Dolphins’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off. Body Cam footage released by the Miami-Dade Police Department has drawn strong reactions in the following days, specifically directed towards the behavior of officer Danny “Dano” Torres.
Shortly after Hill rolled up the window of his McLaren 720S coupe, Torres whipped open the door and pulled him out of the vehicle by the back of his neck - according to the body cam footage. The 30-year-old was promptly dragged to the ground and placed in handcuffs before being escorted to the sidewalk and told to sit down.
Once Hill momentarily refused to sit down, citing recent surgery on his knee, Torres wrapped an arm around his chest area and forcefully took him down - as seen in the body cam footage. The 27-year veteran of the MDPD has since been placed on administrative duties, the MDPD has told the LA Times .
But according to his brother, David Torres, Danny’s actions were justified because Hill had disrespected the officers that pulled him over. “Nobody really wants to admit that Tyreek disrespected the police officers,” he told the Daily Mail .
“If you watch the video, he did not follow instructions from the get-go. He was yelling at the officer and telling him not to bang on his window. If you know anything about dealing with police officers, you know do not raise your window on them.
“The officers have every right to keep themselves safe. And that’s exactly what happened. They were keeping themselves safe.”
David described his brother as “charismatic” and “very likable,” but conceded: “He’s got a strong character but you have to have one to be a South Florida cop for so long.
“He’s just a straightforward, black-and-white kind of person. I don’t mean anything racial by that, I mean that he does things by the book. I think he is an excellent cop. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be reinstated.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hill doubled down on his assertion that Torres deserved to be fired. “Gone. Gone. Gone. He gotta go, man,” Hill said during a news conference.
“In that instance right there, not only did he treat me bad, he also treated my teammates with disrespect, you know? He had some crazy words towards them, and they didn’t even do nothing. Like, what did they do to you? They were just walking on the sidewalk.”
The star wideout did admit, however, that he could’ve handled the situation better. “I will say I could have been better. 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,” he said.
“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. 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 bit differently.”
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