Phoenix officers repeatedly punch, Taser deaf Black man with cerebral palsy
By Dave Biscobing,
11 hours ago
A Black man, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy is facing felony aggravated assault and resisting arrest charges after he was repeatedly punched and tasered by a pair of Phoenix police officers.
The violent and rapid arrest of Tyron McAlpin raises serious questions and could serve as a test case for Phoenix and the Department of Justice as the two battle over whether the police department in America’s fifth-largest city needs federal oversight.
Acting on false claims from a White man under investigation, body camera video shows officers unexpectedly go after McAlpin, punch him in the head at least 10 times, Taser him four times, and wrap their arms around his neck.
“It’s hard for me to see how the city can come out and say with [a] straight face that it is meeting the DOJ report head-on when this man is being charged with assault on police officers for this incident,” said Jesse Showalter, one of McAlpin's attorneys.
Surveillance video Tyron arrest
Phoenix police officials did not answer specific questions about the arrest but confirmed it is under internal investigation.
A spokesperson emailed the following statement:
“This incident is the subject of an ongoing investigation and was assigned to the Professional Standards Bureau on August 30, 2024.”
But, Phoenix police and Maricopa County prosecutors continue to pursue a criminal case against McAlpin. During a recent preliminary hearing, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nick Saccone found there was probable cause for his August 19, 2024, arrest.
McAlpin was arrested by Officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue.
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In their police reports and court testimony, the two officers stated McAlpin was going to run, took a fighting stance, threw repeated punches, and wouldn’t comply with commands.
McAlpin's attorneys said body camera video and surveillance footage show the officers’ claims are false and said there’s an obvious explanation for why he couldn’t comply.
“The answer is easy. He’s deaf. He couldn’t understand what they were doing. And he had done nothing wrong,” Showalter said. “Everything I see in that video is Tyron just trying to avoid being harmed by these officers and that only makes them increase the escalation and the violence that they’re using.”
Among the problems cited by the DOJ, the following issues are also raised in McAlpin's arrest: Racial bias, excessive force, dangerous use of Tasers and chokeholds, and violating the rights of people with disabilities.
The violent arrest stems from a morning call from Circle K employees who reported that a White man was causing problems and wouldn’t leave the store, records show.
While being trespassed, the man claimed he was assaulted by a Black man and pointed across the street at McAlpin.
Officers Harris and Sue took the man’s claims at face value and left him to go after McAlpin. (The man’s assault claim was later refuted by store employees and surveillance video, records show.)
Officer Sue body camera
After handcuffing McAlpin, his girlfriend arrived at the arrest and told the officers that he was deaf and had cerebral palsy, according to body camera footage. None of the officers at the scene included any information about McAplin’s disabilities in their reports.
Both Harris and Sue were called to testify during a preliminary hearing on October 1, 2024.
[Courtroom video of the preliminary hearing is embedded at the end of this report.]
Harris testified that he immediately went hands-on with McAlpin within a second because he believed he was going to run and was going to fight.
“He raised [his hands] in a manner that he was going to strike me,” Harris said during cross-examination. “What that communicated to me is that I was about to get assaulted, not that someone was giving up.”
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Harris also testified he didn’t know if it was possible that McAlpin raised his hands to protect himself from Harris' sudden punches. In response to a question from the prosecution, Harris said everything could have been avoided if McAlpin just indicated he was deaf.
“I would have had him sit down, made motions with my hand to have him sit down, and then I would have gotten a pen,” Harris testified.
As for Officer Sue, he also testified he saw McAlpin throw punches and claimed that he was bitten on the wrist during the arrest.
Officers Sue’s body camera fell off at the beginning of the arrest and only shows the ground. When asked to pinpoint the moment on Officer Harris’ body camera footage when the bite occurred, Sue stopped when the camera was pointed upward and McAlpin was not in frame.
Defense attorneys asked Sue if it was possible he scraped his wrist on the ground or McAlpin's open mouth as they punched, choked, and tasered him.
But Sue said no and denied using a chokehold on McAlpin.
In a bizarre moment to refute the defense’s claim about the cause of the scrape on Sue’s wrist, the prosecution asked him to stick his hand in his mouth and rub it on his teeth.
When Commissioner Saccone ruled he had found probable cause for the felony charges to move forward, he did not give an explanation.
Courtroom video 1 Courtroom video 2 Courtroom video 3
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com .
So a white man lies 🙄 says he was assaulted by a Melanin man again it's false police 🚔 take it as face value assault and go beyond any necessary use of force and the DOJ say it's ok 😒 🤔 if anyone ever saw Rosewood the entire movie 🎬 was based off a lie similar to this but my point a Melanin man is done wrong because of his race his disabilities mattered not Rosewood occurred in 1922 we are in 2024 nothing has changed this is why police are not trusted and feared.
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