() – Recently released body camera video shows two Phoenix police officers shouting commands at a black man as he lies face down on the ground, with one officer punching him repeatedly and another shooting him with a stun gun.
Tyron McAlpin, 34, is deaf and is no longer charged with the alleged crime for which officers physically confronted him in a parking lot on the morning of August 19. The Maricopa County Prosecutor’s Office decided to drop an initial robbery charge against him, the office told on Tuesday.
But McAlpin now faces two counts of aggravated assault and one count of resisting arrest after Phoenix police said he adopted a “fighting stance” when an officer first approached him.
Police were trying to question McAlpin after a man said he had been hit by someone who tried to steal his bike, according to an incident report. The man directed police toward McAlpin, and officers followed him to a nearby parking lot.
As McAlpin walked across the parking lot, an officer called out to the deaf man from his patrol car, body camera footage shows.
“Hey, buddy, stop where you are,” the agent tells him. “Take a seat.”
The officer then exits his vehicle and, within seconds, a fight ensues.
“He raised his hands to throw punches aimed at my face/head, and multiple closed-fist strikes to my head,” the first officer who confronted McAlpin wrote in an incident report.
Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows the patrol car approaching McAlpin. Within seconds, an officer exits the vehicle and charges at him.
Body camera footage shows the officer was the first to extend his arms toward McAlpin while McAlpin’s arms remained at his sides.
Almost instantly, McAlpin raises his arms and appears to have his legs in a fighting or defensive position.
Less than a second later, both the agent and McAlpin are engaged in a fight.
A second officer comes to help pin McAlpin to the ground, face down. But McAlpin’s right hand is still in front of his body.
“Put your hands behind your back!” the first officer yells at the deaf man. “Hands behind your back, now!”
When McAlpin does not comply and raises his head slightly, the other officer punches him in the head.
One of the officers tases McAlpin several times before handcuffing him and leading him away. At one point, the agents describe their injuries from the confrontation:
“I think I broke my hand,” the first agent says. “Did he bite you?”
“Yes,” the second agent responds.
Shortly after, a woman arrives at the scene identifying herself as McAlpin’s wife, body camera footage shows.
“He’s my husband. He was on the phone with me,” said the woman, later identified in a police incident report as Jessica Ulaszek.
“Well, you’re under arrest for assault on a police officer,” an officer tells him. “He assaulted someone at the Circle K. If you can wait there, I’ll tell you right away.”
Ulaszek tells the agents that her husband is disabled and that the two communicated on the phone using sign language.
“He is deaf and has cerebral palsy. And I’ve been on the phone with him since the Circle K,” Ulaszek said.
“I’ve been on the phone with him the whole time. “He didn’t attack anyone.”
Body camera footage shows fire department medics responding and evaluating McAlpin as he lay on the ground. The police report of the incident indicates that he was taken by ambulance to a hospital “as a precaution.”
The two officers are not on administrative leave pending an internal investigation and are actively working, the Phoenix Police Department told on Tuesday.
“This incident is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation and was assigned to the Office of Professional Standards on August 30, 2024,” Phoenix Police said in a statement.
Criticism of the officers’ behavior has sparked calls for charges against McAlpin to be dropped.
Following the violent arrest of a deaf man with cerebral palsy, leading civil rights groups and disability advocacy organizations are calling for the charges to be dropped.
“The continued demands that he comply and follow the orders were not being heard,” said JJ Rico, CEO of Disability Rights Arizona, to affiliate KNXV. “So now to raise accusations that he was not complying, you have to take into account the disability.”
“Disgust is probably the best way I can put it,” told KNXV Sarah Tyree, president of the Arizona conference of the NAACP. “It’s just another harsh reminder of where we are.”
The public outcry prompted Maricopa County’s top prosecutor to personally review the case.
“Some members of our community have expressed concern about the charges against Tyron McAlpin. “I have great faith in the attorneys working in the Maricopa District Attorney’s Office and those who have reviewed this case thus far,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement to on Tuesday.
“I also respect those who have raised concerns. Due to the attention given to this case, I will personally review the entire file, as well as the entire video. “I may or may not come to a different conclusion, but I think this case deserves additional scrutiny.”
Earlier this year, a Department of Justice report claimed that the Phoenix Police Department violated the constitutional rights of homeless people and disproportionately enforced laws against minorities, including people with mental health disabilities, reported. .
As for why McAlpin didn’t follow the officer’s orders, “the answer is easy: He’s deaf,” McAlpin’s attorney, Jesse Showalter, told KNXV.
“I couldn’t understand what they were doing,” Showalter said. “All I see in that video is Tyron trying to avoid being hurt by these police officers and that only increases the escalation and violence they are using.”
During a preliminary hearing in McAlpin’s case, the two officers involved in what happened said they did not remember receiving much training on how to handle hearing-impaired subjects, KNXV reported.
“That was about seven years ago. I don’t really remember much about it,” the first agent testified.
“Have you received any training in dealing with members of the public with disabilities?” McAlpin’s lawyer asked the second officer.
“Maybe briefly, but nothing that I remember,” he responded.
has reached out to the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association for comment. In a statement to KNXV, the police union urged the public not to jump to conclusions.
“While some in the media are making this incident an issue of race and discrimination, in reality it is about 2 police officers in full Phoenix Police uniform driving fully marked patrol cars who were immediately attacked by someone who allegedly had committed a crime. “Our officers have the right to defend themselves against an attack using reasonable and necessary force based on the circumstances that arise at the time,” the statement said. “We stand by our officers and caution the community not to make judgments about the incident until all of the evidence and not a snippet of the body camera footage is reviewed.”
McAlpin’s initial preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 13, and his trial is set for late February.
– ‘s Josh Campbell contributed to this report.
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