Two months after NFL star Tyreek Hill was pulled from his car and handcuffed outside his home stadium during a traffic stop, the citations a police officer gave him have been dropped.
Police bodycam footage shows the Miami Dolphins wide receiver lying face down on the road while an officer kneels on his back. Hill has repeatedly called for the officer to be fired.
Hill was accused of careless driving and not wearing a seatbelt after police said they pulled him over for speeding.
The two citations were dismissed after the officer who wrote the ticket failed to show up for a court appearance on Monday, due to “an oversight on his behalf”, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
“A citation dismissed due to this reason does not indicate that the citation held no merit,” the police statement said, noting the citations were “non-criminal”.
Hill, reacting to the news, posted on X: “Where all the internet cops now”.
Lawyers for Hill told ESPN that the “absence” of the officers involved “evidences their knowledge of wrongdoing”.
“Mr Hill was entitled to have his day in court,” the lawyers said, calling for officers to be “disciplined” for not attending.
Police spokesman Andre Martin denied that the officer was told by his superiors to skip the appearance and said numerous other cases were also dismissed due to the absence.
Officer Batista “either forgot or was doing something else related to his duties that prevented him from attending”, Detective Martin told the BBC.
An administrative probe is being conducted into the failure to appear, Detective Martin said.
Results from a separate internal affairs investigation that was launched after the release of the bodycam footage have yet to be shared.
The traffic stop happened blocks away from the Dolphin’s home field, the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, hours before Hill’s first game of the season.
The body camera footage showed Hill at times being terse with police, telling an officer “don’t knock on my window like that”.
Hill rolled his window down to speak to police, then rolled it up, prompting an officer to tell him to roll it back down.
Seconds later, the officer said: “As a matter of fact, get out of the car.”
Multiple officers were on the scene. Hill was pulled out of his car by two and placed face down on the pavement. One officer then knelt on his back to restrain him and put him in handcuffs.
He and two teammates who were also detained were released and went on to play that night against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Dolphins won that game and Hill scored a touchdown, which he celebrated by pretending to be placed in handcuffs with his teammates.
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