Phoenix police beat and Taser deaf man with cerebral palsy in horrifying footage sparking outrage

Disturbing footage captured on a police body camera video shows the moment police Taser, wrestle to the ground and repeatedly punch a deaf man with cerebral palsy.

Police had been called to a Circle K store in Phoenix, Arizona, over reports a white man had been harassing staff working there. But Tyron McAlpin, a 34-year-old Black man, had been walking nearby and the two cops began beating him.

Footage shows McAlpin walking away from the store before police pull up across his path. McAlpin changes direction before a cop leaps from the car and runs straight for the man trying to wrestle him to the ground while throwing punches.

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The August 19 incident was caught on police body cameras as well as from store CCTV.

The footage shows cops didn't even ask McAlpin for ID before beginning to pummel him. The shocking video shows McAlpin being repeatedly punched after being wrestled to the ground. As he lies on his front on the tarmac, the two officers keep punching him and Taser him four times.

Mr McAlpin says he was unable to hear the officers as he is deaf while his cerebral palsy stopped his attempts to defend himself. Police have now charged McAlpin with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and one count of resisting arrest with force.

The two officers - both white - have been identified as Officers Ben Harris and Kyle Sue. The suspect reported by staff in the store for allegedly hassling them was Derek Stevens, 33, a white man.

When an officer spoke with him, he claimed he had been attacked by a Black man who had stolen his phone. Stevens has not been charged with any crimes, according to the Maricopa County court website.

Footage from inside the store shows police talking to the staff who first called 911. They confirmed to officers it was Stevens who was creating the disturbance. They told police Stevens had come in claiming someone had stolen his phone the day before and laid down refusing to leave.

McAlpin had been helping to get Stevens out of the store. When he arrived McAlpin was using his phone to communicate with his girlfriend via sign language. She could later be heard on camera berating cops after they arrested him saying "You guys arrested him for no reason."

McAlpin has no prior arrests in Maricopa County. His family are now planning to sue Phoenix police. "The answer is easy. He's deaf," McAlpin's lawyer Jesse Showalter told ABC15. "He couldn't understand what they were doing. And he had done nothing wrong."

He adds: "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."