Say What Now? Charges Dropped Against Deaf Man After Bodycam Video Shows Phoenix Police Punching and Tasing Him on the Ground

Bodycam video captures the moment Tyron McAlpin, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, was walking along the road while on his phone when a police vehicle pulled up alongside him and things immediately escalated to violence.

McAlpin, 34, is no longer accused of an alleged crime that prompted officers to physically confront him in a parking lot the morning of August 19. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office decided to drop an initial charge of theft against him, the office told CNN Tuesday.

But until Thursday evening, McAlpin faced two counts of aggravated assault and one count of resisting arrest after Phoenix police said he took a “fighting stance” when first approached by an officer. The local police union said the officers came “under immediate attack” – a notion disputed by others who watched the footage.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said she reviewed the case against McAlpin and “convened a large gathering of senior attorneys and members of the community” to get their opinions, and decided to drop “all remaining charges,” according to a statement from her office Thursday.

“On behalf of Tyron and his family, we are overjoyed,” McAlpin’s attorney Jesse Showalter told CNN by phone. “Rachel Mitchell has done the right and just thing after an independent review. These were unjust charges brought against Tyron and we are deeply saddened that the City of Phoenix and its officers allowed the case to progress as far as it did.”

“This case highlights continuing issues with the city of Phoenix, Phoenix police and its police culture. We look forward to obtaining accountability and justice from the City of Phoenix,” he continued. CNN has reached out to a city spokesperson and the Phoenix Police Department for comment.

Police were trying to question McAlpin after a man said he was punched by someone who tried to steal his bike, according to an incident report. The man directed police to McAlpin, and officers followed him to a nearby parking lot.

As McAlpin walks across the parking lot, one officer calls out to the deaf man from his police car, the bodycam footage shows.

“Hey buddy, stop where you’re at,” the officer says. “Have a seat.”

The officer then gets out of his car, and within seconds, a scuffle ensues.

“His hands raised to deliver targeted punches at my face/head, and multiple swings with closed fists at my head,” the first officer who confronted McAlpin wrote in an incident report.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows the police car driving up to McAlpin. Within seconds, an officer gets out of the car and lunges toward McAlpin.

Body camera footage shows the officer was the first to outstretch his arms toward McAlpin while McAlpin’s arms remained by his side.

Almost instantly, McAlpin raises his arms up. Less than a second after that, both the officer and McAlpin are tangled in a brawl.

A second officer comes to help pin McAlpin on 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 shouts to the deaf man. “Hand behind your back, now!”

When McAlpin doesn’t comply and lifts his head slightly, the other officer punches his head down.

One officer tases McAlpin several times before he is handcuffed and taken away. At one point, the officers describe their injuries from the confrontation:

“I think I broke my hand,” the first officer says. “Did he bite you?”

“Yeah,” the second officer replied.

Shortly afterward, a woman arrives at the scene identifying herself as McAlpin’s wife, the bodycam footage shows.

“That’s my husband. He was on the phone with me,” said the woman, later identified in a police incident report as Jessica Ulaszek.

“Well, he’s under arrest for assault on a police officer,” an officer tells her. “He assaulted somebody at the Circle K. If you can wait over there, I’ll tell you right about it, in a little bit.”

Ulaszek tells officers her husband is disabled, and the two were communicating on the phone via sign language.

“He’s deaf and he’s got cerebral palsy. And I’ve been on the phone with him since Circle K,” Ulaszek said.

“I’ve been on the phone with him the whole time. He didn’t assault nobody.”

The body camera footage shows fire department medics responding and assessing McAlpin while he lay on the ground. The police incident report indicated he was taken by ambulance to a hospital “for precautionary measures.”

The two officers have not been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation and are actively working, the Phoenix Police Department told CNN Tuesday.

“This incident is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation and was assigned to the Professional Standards Bureau on August 30, 2024,” Phoenix Police said in a statement.

via: CNN

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