Chiefs: DA reopens Hill case
Associated Press
OVERLAND PARK, KAN.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Friday a local prosecutor has reopened a domestic violence investigation involving suspended wide receiver Tyreek Hill after a TV station broadcast audio in which Hill and his fiancee discuss injuries to their 3-year-old son.
Reid and general manager Brett Veach both declined comment about Hill’s case and potential next steps involving their star player. The prosecutor, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe, did not return a message.
“I’m not going to have too much to add,” Veach said in response to multiple questions about Hill. “As I said yesterday, we’re going to continue to gather information, evaluate information and, as I said yesterday, we’ll make the right decision when the time is appropriate.”
Police were called to Hill’s home twice last month and determined the child had been injured. On Wednesday, Howe said he would not file charges against Hill or Crystal Espinal even though his office believed a crime had occurred. He said available evidence didn’t establish who had hurt the child.
“As a prosecutor, as a father of four, yes, it frustrates me when someone hurts a child and you can’t do anything about it,” Howe said then. “One of the elements of a crime is you have to prove who that person is who committed the act.”
A day later, KCTV in Kansas City aired part of an 11-minute audio file in which Espinal tells Hill earlier this year that when the boy was asked about his injured arm he replied: “Daddy did it.”
Hill denied any role in what happened to the child, saying: “He says Daddy does a lot of things.”
Espinal also tells Hill their son is “terrified of you.”
Hill replies, “You need to be terrified of me, too, bitch.”
Later, Espinal asks Hill, “What do you do when the child is bad? You make him open up his arms and you punch him in the chest.”