Andy Reid: Chiefs 'Have Trust In' Tyreek Hill After Child Abuse Investigation
July 23, 2019
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid remains supportive of wide receiver Tyreek Hill after the NFL declined to suspend him following an investigation into allegations of child abuse.
"We're comfortable with Tyreek coming back here," Reid said Tuesday, per Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith. "We look forward to bringing him back here and having an opportunity to get back doing what he loves to do. He has some obligations he'll take care of as he goes, and I'm not going to get into all that. ... We have trust in Tyreek and we're going to go forward in a positive way here."
The Kansas City Star's Steve Vockrodt and Brooke Pryor reported in March that police in Overland Park, Kansas, filed a formal report regarding a "battery incident that lists a juvenile as the victim." Hill's three-year-old son reportedly suffered a broken arm.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against Hill or fiancee Crystal Espinal, but subsequently reopened the investigation after KCTV5 in Kansas City, Missouri, obtained audio of a conversation between Hill and Espinal in which they argued about how their son broke his arm. Hill also threatened Espinal on the call.
Nate Taylor @ByNateTaylorCrystal Espinal: "He started crying & you were like, 'Shut up, shut up, stop crying, stop crying.'" Tyreek Hill: "Right." Crystal Espinal: "He kept crying because he was scared. He's terrified. You grabbed onto him somehow or he fell? 1 of the 2." Hill: "I didn't do nothing."
Prosecutors once again put the investigation on hold barring the discovery of new evidence.
"We believe that a crime has occurred," Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said, per CNN's Amir Vera. "However, the evidence in this case does not conclusively establish who committed the crime against this child."
The NFL announced Friday it wouldn't suspend Hill, with the league saying in a statement it "cannot conclude that Mr. Hill violated the Personal Conduct Policy."
USA Today's A.J. Perez reported the district attorney's office in Johnson County declined to provide the evidence it had obtained to that point to the NFL's investigators, citing the Kansas Open Records Act.