Deaf Black man beat by Phoenix cops comes after city for $3.5 million

In August, Tyron McAlpin, a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy, was beaten by Phoenix cops. He was then charged with a bogus offense and held in jail for 24 days.

Now, after video of his beating generated national headlines, McAlpin is coming for the city with a $3.5 million lawsuit.

On Tuesday, an attorney for McAlpin filed a notice of claim against Phoenix and three officers, a precursor to a lawsuit. The filing accuses officers Kyle Sue and Benjamin Harris of baselessly assaulting McAlpin, and also accuses officer Jorge Acosta of authoring a fabricated police report to justify McAlpin’s arrest.

For $3.5 million, the notice of claim states, the city could “resolve all claims” McAlpin might bring in a lawsuit, “including, but not limited to, claims for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, excessive force, negligence, assault, battery, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

The document was filed and signed by attorney Jesse M. Showalter of the firm Robbins Curtin Millea & Showalter LLC.

“As a result of the unjustified assault by Officers Harris and Sue, Tyron suffered severe physical, mental, and emotional pain and suffering,” Showalter wrote. “As a result of the false charges brought by Officers Harris, Sue, and Acosta, Tyron was falsely arrested and was deprived of his freedom for 24 days.”

The office of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego responded to a request for comment. Dan Wilson, the communications director for the city, said, “The City is unable to comment on pending litigation."

Showalter filed the notice of claim exactly three months after Sue and Harris brutally beat McAlpin in front of a Dollar Tree on Indian School Road. The officers were called to a nearby Circle K to trespass a white man who was behaving aggressively and refusing to leave the store. That man, identified in the notice of claim only as D.S., told officers that a Black man had assaulted him and pointed them in McAlpin’s direction.

According to the notice of claim and police body camera footage, police did not fully investigate D.S.’s story — including talking to Circle K employees and reviewing surveillance footage — before speeding off to confront McAlpin at Dollar Tree. Surveillance video and body-cam footage both show Harris and Sue pouncing on McAlpin within a second of exiting their police vehicle in the store parking lot.

Showalter wrote that McAlpin “attempted to raise his hands to his ears to signal that he was deaf” but that the officers manhandled him, drove him to the ground and began punching him before he could do so. The officers also shocked McAlpin with a Taser, causing “extreme pain and immobilization,” Showalter wrote.

False report

McAlpin was charged with resisting arrest, though the incident report filed by Harris, Sue and Acosta hardly characterized the arrest accurately. The officers said McAlpin was the one who assaulted them, which video showed did not occur. The report also neglected to mention McAlpin’s disabilities, despite body camera footage showing that McAplin’s girlfriend informed the officers that he was deaf.

The claim also accuses Acosta of fabricating a pretense for stopping McAlpin. According to the notice of claim, Acosta wrote “a false report and probable cause statement” saying that D.S. accused McAlpin of stealing his cell phone. However, Showalter wrote, body camera footage shows that the man never alleged that his cell phone was stolen. The phone police found on McAlpin belonged to McAlpin.

“Officer Acosta falsified his police report to include this information in order to cover up for Officers Harris and Sue’s violent attack and to harm and damage Tyron’s reputation,” Showalter wrote.

McAlpin was still facing criminal charges until last month, when ABC 15 revealed the video in a report that garnered national attention. On Oct. 17, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell dropped the charges against McAlpin. Harris and Sue were placed on paid leave on Oct. 21 as the department investigates whether the officers violated policy.

The attack on McAlpin came just months after the U.S. Department of Justice completed a years-long investigation into Phoenix police, culminating in a 126-page report documenting its frequent civil rights violations. The report found Phoenix PD regularly discriminated against people of color, used excessive and unnecessarily deadly force — especially against people with disabilities or mental illness — and arrested unhoused people without cause.

“The City of Phoenix has created a culture of impunity within its police department and has trained officers to escalate ordinary encounters by using unnecessary and unjustified force,” Showalter wrote. “The City of Phoenix fails to supervise, discipline, or train officers who use unnecessary and unjustified force.”

The city of Phoenix has already doled out millions in settlement money related to policing in the past few years. In 2023, Phoenix paid more than $12 million to settle police abuse cases, according to ABC15. That included a $5.5 million payment to the family of Ali Osman, who was shot and killed by police in 2022. In September of this year, it approved a payment of $800,000 to the family of a man who died in police custody on New Year’s Day of 2021. In March, the city approved two settlements totaling $410,000.

The city probably won’t be done approving settlements any time soon, either. Police allegedly held Michael Kenyon on the hot asphalt on a sweltering July day, causing him to suffer third-degree burns and need hospital treatment for a month. When officers picked him up, they saw his skin peel off. Kenyon was never charged with a crime. The man has not yet sued but has secured legal representation.