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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill has been barred from team activities after disturbing audio surfaced Thursday purportedly showing him threatening his fiancée as the two discussed a recent incident that left their 3-year-old son’s arm broken.
“A 3-year-old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm,” Crystal Espinal tells Hill in the recording, adding, “He is terrified of you.”
Hill responds, “You need to be terrified of me, too, dumb b—-.”
The audio was released a day after prosecutors in Kansas determined there was insufficient evidence to file charges against Hill after police were called twice to Hill’s home last month.
The calls triggered an investigation into the boy’s injury.
At a press conference Thursday, Johnson County District Attorney Stephen M. Howe said while he believed a crime was committed, the evidence didn’t clearly establish who committed it.
Later in the recording, both Hill and Espinal accuse each other of disciplining their child with a belt.
She reportedly gave the recording to a friend for safe keeping, the station reports.
The Chiefs issued a statement saying that “for the foreseeable future, Tyreek Hill will not take part in any team activities.”
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“We are going to gather more information, we’re going to evaluate this information, and we will make the right decision regarding Tyreek Hill.”
A representative for Hill could not be reached for comment.
The boy has been removed from his parents’ custody, PEOPLE learns.
In the audio, Espinal appears to suggest she helped Hill avoid criminal charges.
“I really want you to really sit and think about it because I rode for you against that detective and the C.P.S. people,” she said, referring to the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which also investigated the incident.
In 2014, Hill was accused of domestic violence while he was at Oklahoma State University.
The following year, he pleaded guilty to assaulting and choking Espinal, who was eight weeks pregnant at the time.
As part of his plea deal, Hill was sentenced to three years probation.
source: people.com
