Footage of Phoenix police punching, Tasering deaf Black man sparks probe

The body-camera footage shows two officers, Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue, repeatedly punching McAlpin in the head and shooting electric currents through his body with a Taser while he lies on his stomach, screaming. He is repeatedly told to put his hand, which is folded at his side, behind his back.

McAlpin did not obey the officers’ verbal commands because he is deaf, said Jesse Showalter, who is representing McAlpin in a potential civil rights lawsuit against the city of Phoenix.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement that the case “merits additional scrutiny” after members of the community raised concerns and that she will review the file including the body-camera video. A Phoenix Police Department spokesperson said the case had been assigned to its Professional Standards Bureau on Aug. 30 and was under internal investigation.

The Justice Department found in June, after an almost three-year federal civil rights investigation, that the Phoenix police routinely use excessive force and discriminate against Black, Hispanic and Native American people. Showalter said McAlpin’s case shows “there’s been no change on the ground.”

“What we have is an innocent person who’s attacked by police while he’s walking home to his own house,” he said, adding that “Phoenix police officers continue to violate the rights of African Americans and of the disabled.”

Several Phoenix council members released statements expressing concern about the incident, particularly in light of existing complaints over police behavior and accountability in the city, and demanding a thorough investigation.

Noting that the Justice Department report recommended “consistent processes for investigating misconduct,” Councilman Kevin Robinson said the incident presented an opportunity to show that allegations against police are “fully examined.”

Surveillance footage of the parking lot of a Dollar Tree store, also shared with The Post by Showalter, shows a police car driving up beside McAlpin, who appears startled and moves out of the way.

An officer, Harris, can be heard telling McAlpin, “Hey buddy, stop where you’re at.” Seconds later, he rushes at and begins hitting McAlpin, who appears to be raising his hands to push the officer away. The second officer, Sue, then runs over, and the two officers force him to the ground, where they repeatedly hit and Taser him.

Police were there because they received a call from a nearby Circle K convenience store about a White man in his 20s acting aggressively, according to court documents.

After police arrived about 7:50 a.m., the White man claimed that he, in fact, had just been assaulted. He pointed out McAlpin, who had recently left the premises. McAlpin was walking home, on a video call with his wife using sign language, oblivious to the claim just made about him, his attorney said.

The officers left the White man outside the store and drove instead toward McAlpin.

According to Harris’s report, he instructed McAlpin to stop, and McAlpin “communicated his intent to avoid contact” by changing direction. Neither Harris’s nor Sue’s incident report mentions that McAlpin is deaf and has cerebral palsy, which police were told immediately after the arrest, the body-camera footage shows. That he is deaf is mentioned in the report of another officer, who interviewed McAlpin’s wife.

Harris’s report says that he approached McAlpin to detain him and that McAlpin immediately began “swinging punches at my head” in a “fighting stance” and “engaging in assaults to cause me harm and injury.” Because of McAlpin’s “violent behavior,” Harris said, he “delivered as many closed-fist strikes as I could to Tyron’s head area.” This “resulted in an injury to my left hand which caused immediate pain,” he added.

The report then describes Harris and another officer tackling McAlpin to the ground and using a Taser in response to his “active resistance,” as well as to compensate for the limited movement in his sore left hand, he wrote. Both reports say that while on the ground, McAlpin bit an officer on the hand, and Sue is seen with a possible injury in the body-camera footage.

Police also did not mention McAlpin’s disabilities in materials provided for McAlpin’s bail hearing, according to his attorney. McAlpin spent 24 days in jail, the first time he had been incarcerated, his attorney said.

He was initially also charged with theft after the White man, who had been the subject of the original call to police, claimed McAlpin had stolen his cellphone. Investigations revealed the relevant cellphone was McAlpin’s, his attorney said. The theft charge has been dropped. McAlpin’s trial on the three felony counts is scheduled for February.

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this report.