A deaf Black man with cerebral palsy who was shocked with a Taser and punched many times by Phoenix police officers has been cleared of all charges.
One count of resisting arrest and two counts of aggravated assault were brought against 34-year-old Tyron McAlpin by police. He was accused of not following verbal orders and “actively aggression by swinging punches” at an officer during an arrest on August 19.
McAlpin was also charged with theft, a crime because he was thought to have taken a man’s cell phone. In September, that charge was dropped.
Rachel Mitchell, the attorney general for Maricopa County, said Thursday that she had looked over the case and decided to drop the charges of attack and not cooperating with police.
“Last Friday, a leader of the local NAACP chapter told me that he was worried about Mr. Tyron McAlpin being charged. “I promised that I would personally look over the case, which includes a lot of video recordings, police reports, and other things that have been sent to my office,” she said in a statement. “On Tuesday of this week, I also convened a large gathering of senior attorneys and members of the community to hear their opinions as they pertain to this case.”
Mitchell said: “I have now completed my review and have made the decision to dismiss all remaining charges against Mr. McAlpin.”
A request for comment on Saturday was sent to Mitchell’s office and an attorney for McAlpin, but neither responded right away.
A fight broke out at Circle K on E. Indian School Road, which led to the arrest. According to a police incident record that McAlpin’s lawyer Jesse Showalter gave to NBC News, officers went to the store after getting a 911 call about a fight.
Police say the person who called 911 said the attacker was a white guy in his 20s who was still in the store. A report says that Officer Benjamin Harris talked to the man and found out that he had been beaten up after he tried to stop someone from stealing a bike. The man then pointed to McAlpin, who was walking close, and said that McAlpin was the one who hit him.
Officer Kyle Sue and Harris chased McAlpin in different cars and caught him in the parking lot of another store.
Showalter recently shared a video from Harris’s body camera that showed him trying to arrest McAlpin as soon as he got out of his car. In his report, Harris said that he did that because McAlpin didn’t stop when he was told to. Showalter said that McAlpin couldn’t do what was asked of him because he was deaf.
Harris said that McAlpin “immediately engaged in active aggression by swinging punches” at the officer’s head after he got out of his car and tried to grab McAlpin’s arm.
The body cam film showed that one of the officers told McAlpin to put his hands behind his back and “tase him” while he was being arrested. The video shows that Officer Sue hit McAlpin on the head several times. Jones shocked McAlpin with a Taser while he was on the ground face down and Sue had his left hand behind his back. Jones then yelled at McAlpin to put his hands behind his back.
The video showed that Sue hit McAlpin in the back again. McAlpin could be heard making a lot of noises after he was bound. McAlpin’s wife finally got to the scene of the crime. On the tape, she was heard telling the police that her husband is deaf and has cerebral palsy.
On Monday, McAlpin’s lawyer said that the police used a “frenzied and violent attack on Tyron.” He said he had asked the police for more videos, such as body camera footage from talks with Circle K workers who denied the man’s assault claim, as well as other videos of McAlpin’s arrest. It was said that the lawyer would sue if he didn’t get the information by November.
The Justice Department found earlier this year that the Phoenix Police Department discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when they are following the law, uses too much force, targets communities of color more than other communities, and illegally detains homeless people. After a three-year investigation, the DOJ made its results public in June.
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