Three Phoenix police officers will receive unpaid suspensions 24 hours a day, and two of them must undergo more training, after the arrest of a deaf man who has cerebral palsy last year, police chief said Wednesday.
Tyron Mcalpin was arrested on August 19, 2024, after a man who was involved in a fight in a convenience store pointed to Mcalpin, who was walking, while talking with the officers, according to a police report.
The video showed Mcalpin arrested almost as soon as the police left his vehicle. Mcalpin was beaten and shocked with a stunning gun, according to the video.
Mcalpin had been accused of serious crime of aggravated assault and arrest resistance, but Maricopa County prosecutor Rachel Mitchell dismissed those charges in October after reviewing the case.
Mcalpin’s lawyer said at that time that the wounds of the officers during the arrest resulted from his “frantic and violent attack against Tyron.”
“The department identified policy violations” after an administrative investigation into the arrest, said the Phoenix Police Department in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement did not identify the officers. A police spokesman said that the department did not appoint the officers because a possible appeal process is pending.
The three offices received unpaid suspensions 24 hours a day, and two of them must undergo an additional decalization training, the department said.
The suspensions are for 24 hours in total, so if the officers work eight -hour shifts, that would be a three -day suspension, police said.
“Our priority is always the security and well -being of our community and our officers. We understand the concerns raised by this incident, and take them seriously,” said interim police chief Michael Sullivan.
The incident occurred after someone called 911 on a fight in a Circle K store, police said in an incident report. The person called said that a white man was the aggressor and that he was still inside the store, according to the report.
The man pointed to Mcalpin, who is black, and said he assaulted him, the police wrote in the report.
Mcalpin’s lawyer, Jesse Showalter, said the police used excessive force and did not interview the employee of Circle K or anyone to ask what happened.
In the video, “what you see is simply Tyron trying to avoid being repeatedly beaten by the officer who swings repeatedly on his face,” Showalter said in October.
There are no indications that the officers knew that Mcalpin was deaf or had cerebral palsy before his arrest.
“Our goal is to learn from this and advance together as a stronger department and community,” said Sullivan, the interim police chief in Wednesday’s statement.
Showalter did not immediately respond to a request for comments sent by email sent to his law firm on Wednesday afternoon.
