Charges Dropped Against Deaf Black Man After Bodycam Footage Shows Police Punching, Tasing Him

Until late Thursday night, McAlpin was still facing charges, but after reviewing all available materials surrounding his August 19 arrest, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell had decided to dismiss them.

The first charge dropped was on an accusation of theft, which preceded the shocking police confrontation captured in multiple video feeds. On Thursday evening, Mitchell dropped additional charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest.

According to the local police union, the officers involved stated they came "under immediate attack" upon their first contact with McAlpin, per CNN, and that he took a "fighting stance."

The footage shows a different story, with McAlpin walking along while communicating on his phone when the police car pulled up alongside him. He veered to walk around the vehicle, at which point one of the officers says, "Hey buddy, stop where you’re at. Have a seat."

Within seconds, the officer was out of the car and involved in a physical altercation with McAlpin. In the incident report, the officer wrote, "His hands raised to deliver targeted punches at my face/head, and multiple swings with closed fists at my head."

Again, the footage showed a different story. Surveillance footage from a nearby business showed the officer get out of the car and immediately lunge at McAlpin, whose arms remained at his side until he was physically involved.

Things escalated immediately with the arrival of a second officer, who helped the first push McAlpin to the ground, with one arm pinned beneath him. The officers' bodycam footage shows them repeatedly shouting at McAlpin to "put your hands behind your back!"

But as he could not hear them, and was facedown on the pavement, he was not complying. When he lifted his head and attempted to look behind him, it appears that he was punched by the officer. The action was repeated multiple times.

"I struck the suspect with a closed right fist in the center of his back, and gave him an opportunity to present his right arm," wrote the officer in an incident report, per CNN. "After there was no response I struck the suspect one time with a closed right fist to the right side of his face."

The second officer, who was not actively restraining McAlpin on the ground, proceeded to tase him multiple times as he continued to not comply with orders he could not hear to put his hands behind his back. McAlpin can be heard moaning and screaming as he was tased repeatedly.

After many jolts with the taser, McAlpin was finally handcuffed and taken away, with one officer noting, "I think I broke my hand," asking the other if McAlpin had bitten him.

Shortly after the altercation, a woman approached the scene and identified herself as McAlpin's wife, Jessica Ulaszek, as seen on the bodycam footage. "That's my husband, he was on the phone with me," she tells the officers in the video.

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

At this point, Ulaszek told officers her husband was disabled and that they were communicating via sign language on the phone.

"He's deaf and he’s got cerebral palsy. And I've been on the phone with him since Circle K," she said. "I've been on the phone with him the whole time. He didn't assault nobody."

"Well, he did now," one of the officers told Ulaszek, per People.

According to analysis of the bodycam footage, the first officer to come into contact with McAlpin took less than two seconds before he was out of his vehicle and had hands on his alleged suspect. According to CNN, he later admitted he'd already decided to detain McAlpin before even getting out of his vehicle.

"Tyron did nothing to warrant police contact of any kind," McAlpin's attorney Jesse Showalter told CNN, saying that what happened in the footage was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Showalter said that his client's hands were "contracted throughout" the encounter as a result of his cerebral palsy, which was misinterpreted by police as aggression, while he did not comply with orders he did not hear.

According to the probable cause affidavit, police were responding to a white male who alleged that McAlpin had punched him in the face and taken his phone at or near the Circle K. No employees witnessed the alleged incident.

In the aftermath of the altercation, Disability Rights Arizona CEO J.J. Rico told KNXV, "The continued demands to comply and follow commands was not being heard. So now to raise allegations that he was not complying, you have to consider the disability."

As the public continued to cry out, the NAACP's Arizona conference president, Sarah Tyree, told the station, "It's just another stark reminder of where we are."

The outcry led Mitchell to take a deep dive into McAlpin's case and all the accompanying written and video materials related to it. She released a statement where she noted that after meeting with a leader of the NAACP, "I promised I would personally review the case including a large volume of video recordings, police reports, and other materials that have been forwarded to my office."

She said she followed that up by putting together "a large gathering of senior attorneys and members of the community to hear their opinions as they pertain to this case."

After completing her review, Mitchell revealed in her statement that she had "made the decision to dismiss all remaining charges against Mr. McAlpin." She did not specify what led her to this conclusion. The previous theft charge had already been dropped as there was no evidence to substantiate it.

CNN additionally reported that the officers involved were questioned about the incident, considering McAlpin's disabilities, during a preliminary hearing on his case.

"That's about seven years ago. I don't really remember much of it," said one, while the other said that he received training, "maybe briefly, but nothing that I recall."