Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell provided details about his and Tyreek Hill’s detainment ahead of Sunday’s home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Campbell spoke about the incident Monday with Emmanuel Acho of Fox Sports.
Hill and Campbell were both placed in handcuffs by police outside Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium as they arrived to the game. Hill had been pulled over for a traffic violation. Per Campbell, he pulled up to the scene when Hill was already detained.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on, did somebody crash?'” Campbell said. “… I’m like hold up, that’s Tyreek. So I pull over and I was just sitting there observing for a while and I see the officers using, like, unnecessary force. So I get out, like ‘Hey, hold on. This is Tyreek Hill. This is my friend. What’s going on here?'”
Campbell said that an officer told him to back up and that he complied. He said that he then called team security.
“I stayed where he told me not to stand,” Campbell continued. “After a while, he told me I had to leave. I told him I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted to be there to support my teammate.”
When Campbell declined to leave, that’s when he said that he was placed in handcuffs.
“He put me under arrest,” Campbell continued. “I wasn’t cited. He put me under arrest, but he really just detained me. He put me in handcuffs — in handcuffs for like five minutes. He took them off and told me that right now I was detained and released and that’s all.
“Tyreek was in handcuffs for like 20 minutes, probably more. Team security came and was able to squash everything. Other officers pulled up — I think some superior officers pulled up. And everything worked out. But it was a crazy situation. It was not necessary.”
Campbell told Acho that one officer was “acting irrational and erratic.”
“When I got out of the car and got my hands up walking toward them like, ‘Hey, that’s my friend there, what’s going on?'” Campbell said. “The officer that was instigating everything and was overly aggressive, he came toward me. Which I felt like was the best thing to happen. It allowed Tyreek to kind of calm down, the officers to calm down.”
Campbell said that he kept his hands up and ensured that he was complying with officers’ commands during the interaction.
He described one officer in particular as “hostile” and said he took precautions to make sure he didn’t come across as a threat. That officer, Campbell said, is the one who placed him in handcuffs.
“He’s the one guy who was agitating everything, extremely excessive,” Campbell said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘All the other cops are pretty cool, chill. He’s the one you have to be careful.’ It definitely was one guy.”
Hill and Campbell were both released and played in Miami’s 20-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hill tallied 130 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Campbell was awarded the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2019 as the NFL player that best demonstrates outstanding community service and excellence on the field. He was also the recipient of the 2024 Alan Page Community Award, given annually by the NFLPA to a player that “goes above and beyond to perform community service in his team city and/or hometown.”
Campbell said that Sunday was the first time he’s ever been placed in handcuffs.
Police union addresses incident
The South Florida Police Benevolent Association released a statement Monday from president Steadman Stahl addressing the officers’ actions.
“Before the Dolphins game yesterday, an incident occurred where Tyreek Hill was placed in handcuffs before being released. First, to be clear, at no time was he ever under arrest. He was briefly detained for officer safety, after driving in a manner in which he was putting himself and others in great risk of danger.
“Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on the scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, place Mr. Hill in handcuffs. Mr Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground.”
Video from passersby on the scene shows Hill as he was being detained:
“Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave,” Stahl’s statement continues. … “While we are confident in the actions that led to the stop of Mr. Hill, as with any investigation, we will wait for all of the facts to come out, along with any explanation Mr. Hill may have for his actions that initiated this unfortunate incident.”
Miami-Dade Police Department Director Stephanie V. Daniels announced on Sunday that one of the officers involved in the incident had been place on administrative duties and that the department was conducting an investigation.
The officer on administrative duty has not been publicly identified. Body cam footage of the incident has yet to be released.
Hill said Sunday afternoon that he had “no idea” why he was detained.
“It’s hard,” Hill said. “I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that — put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen.”
Hill had not further addressed the incident in public as of Monday afternoon.
Mike McDaniel commends Hill, Campbell
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel commended Hill and Campbell for how they handled Sunday’s incident during and emotional news conference Monday afternoon.
🎥 Mike McDaniel gets emotional when speaking about Tyreek Hill being detained: “It’s been hard for me not to find myself more upset the more I think about it… super proud of our guys understanding the responsibility of a platform and intending to do right by it.”… pic.twitter.com/ndyBRn8afH
— FinsXtra (@FinsXtra) September 9, 2024
“It’s been hard to not find myself more upset the more I think about it.” McDaniel told reporters. … “The thing that f***s me up, honestly, to be quite frank, is knowing that I don’t know exactly — I don’t what that feels like. …
“Two things did come from adversity. Super proud of teammates being teammates. Super proud of our guys understanding the civic responsibility of a platform and intending to do right by it.”
The NFLPA is monitoring the incident, ESPN reports.
