FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The man didn’t know he was slapped by the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill offered him $200 with his apology, according to a Miami-Dade Police report.
A supplemental report the South Florida Sun Sentinel obtained through a public records request Wednesday gives more details about what led to the alleged slap Hill planted on the neck of a fishing charter company employee at the Bill Bird Marina in Haulover Park on Father’s Day.
Ed Griffith, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, said in an email Monday that they are reviewing the case.
A Kelley Fishing Fleet employee saw two men, one later identified as Hill, fishing for tarpon from the dock on Father’s Day, the report said. He told police that is illegal.
Two women in Hill’s group joined them and got on a private docked fishing boat. The boat’s captain had just returned from the marina’s gas station and found them, the report said.
He told them to get off. Hill “claimed he was being disrespected,” the boat captain told police.
“I can buy you and the boat,” Hill told the captain, and the “dispute began to escalate,” according to the report.
The boat captain told police that Hill hurled expletives and “became enraged and attempted to enter the boat to cause him bodily harm but was held back by unknown associates,” according to the report. The boat captain knew it was Hill once he said, “I’m number 10 from the Miami Dolphins.”
As the commotion between Hill and the boat captain continued, the Kelley Fishing Fleet employee left the office and walked over. Hill walked by him and slapped the man on the back of his head and neck, he told officers.
One of the men in Hill’s group restrained Hill, who struggled to get out of the grip, the report said. The employee ran back into the office and locked the door, afraid.
A fisherman told the employee that the man who allegedly slapped him was “a very famous football player for the Miami Dolphins,” the report said.
The man who was at the dock with Hill told the employee Hill wanted to apologize. When he came out of the office, he heard Hill telling his “associate” to give him $200, the report said. The employee didn’t take the money, and Hill left shortly after.
Officers reviewed surveillance footage that recorded the arguments, which backed up the boat captain’s and employee’s accounts, the report said. The employee identified Hill as the man who slapped him in a photo lineup, and officers referred him to the State Attorney’s Office to pursue charges.
The report said the police department handed their case over to a prosecutor on June 22.
