Shocking body camera footage shows Phoenix police using stun gun on deaf man with cerebral palsy
Disturbing CCTV footage shows the moment a black man, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, was wrestled to the ground by police in Phoenix and then repeatedly punched and tasered in the head.
Tyron McAlpin, 34, was walking out of a convenience store when two Phoenix police officers arrived after being called to the scene because a white man had disturbed staff working there.
But instead of asking McAlpin for identification, images were obtained by AZFamily shows the two white police officers beating up the man they thought was their suspect.
McAlpin was punched at least ten times by police after being wrestled to the ground, before being tasered four more times just as the black man walked out of the Circle K, but it was a white man who disrupted staff working there.
He couldn’t communicate with them because he couldn’t hear anything from the officers, while his cerebral palsy hampered his efforts to defend himself.
Tyron McAlpin, 34, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, was wrestled to the ground by police in Phoenix before being repeatedly punched in the head and tasered
McAlpin couldn’t communicate with them because he couldn’t hear anything the officers said, while his cerebral palsy hampered his efforts to defend himself.
McAlpin is now facing aggravated assault and resisting arrest charges.
In addition to bodycam footage from Officers Ben Harris and Kyle Sue, surveillance camera footage also captured the incident from above, as McAlpin appeared to walk out of the store and attempt to avoid the oncoming police patrol car.
Within two seconds of officers leaving their car, they engaged McAlpin, despite having information that a man with a completely different description had been causing the disturbance in the store.
The real suspect was a white man named Derek Stevens, 33, but when an officer spoke to him, Stevens took advantage of the situation and told police the man they were looking for was McAlpin, police said. Black star from Atlanta.
Stevens told police he was the victim as he told them he had been attacked by a black man who stole his phone.
The incident, which occurred on August 19, left McAlpin facing three felonies, including two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and one count of resisting arrest with violence. The theft charges against him were dropped.
According to the Maricopa County District Court website, Stevens has not yet been charged with any crime, including making a false report to police.
Surveillance footage from above shows McAlpin walking out of the Circle K store
The police waste no time in wrestling him to the ground and tasering him
Phoenix Police Officers Ben Harris and Officer Kyle Sue are the subject of legal action
Further footage taken inside the store shows a third Phoenix police officer interviewing the Circle K store clerks who summoned them in the first place.
They confirmed to officers that Stevens was the one causing the disturbance and claimed someone had stolen his phone the previous day.
He then lay on the floor and ignored staff instructions to leave.
The workers also explained to the officers how McAlpin had helped get Stevens out of the store.
Security footage showed McAlpin walking into the store with his phone while Stevens was inside.
McAlpin used his phone and communicated with his girlfriend using sign language.
She was later heard on camera berating police after they wrongfully arrested him.
McAlpin was seen leaving the store but could not hear the police command to stop
The scuffle involving police and McAlpin occurred within two seconds of officers arriving
The real suspect was a white man named Derek Stevens, 33, seen at left, but when an officer spoke to him, Stevens took advantage of the situation and told police the man they were looking for was McAlpin.
Further footage taken inside the store shows a third Phoenix police officer interviewing the Circle K store clerks who summoned them in the first place
“You arrested him for no reason,” the woman could be heard saying on the bodycam.
“I’ve been on the phone with him since Circle K and you guys went in there because someone was fucking with him. And you arrested him?’
“How do you talk on the phone when he’s deaf?” an officer asked her.
‘We use sign language!’ McAlpin’s irritated girlfriend responds.
McAlpin has no prior arrests in Maricopa County, while Stevens has been arrested for two felonies in the past, including a menacing charge in 2017.
McAlpin’s family is now considering filing a lawsuit Phoenix Police.
‘The answer is simple. He is deaf,” McAlpin’s attorney Jesse Showalter said ABC15. ‘He couldn’t understand what they were doing. And he had done nothing wrong.”
“All I see in that video is Tyron just trying to avoid being harmed by these officers, and that just causes them to increase the escalation and violence that they use.”