


A prosecutor in Arizona announced this week that she had dropped charges against a deaf Black man who has cerebral palsy after she reviewed details of his arrest, during which police officers repeatedly punched him and shocked him with a Taser.
The man, Tyron Scott McAlpin, 34, was arrested on Aug. 19 by two officers of the Phoenix Police Department on charges of assault and resisting arrest. The officers believed that Mr. McAlpin had punched a man at a nearby convenience store and stolen his phone.
Video of the arrest, which was recently released, shows the two officers interviewing the man who claimed that he had been robbed at the convenience store. The officers then spotted Mr. McAlpin in a nearby parking lot, where they immediately shoved him to the ground, punched him repeatedly and shocked him with a Taser.
The release of the video drew an outcry from local and state leaders, with some calling on the Maricopa County attorney, Rachel Mitchell, to review Mr. McAlpin’s case. The arrest records said that Mr. McAlpin is deaf and has cerebral palsy.
Ms. Mitchell said in a statement on Thursday that after reviewing the case, she had made the decision to drop the charges against Mr. McAlpin.
Jesse Showalter, a lawyer for Mr. McAlpin, said in a statement on Friday that Mr. McAlpin and his family were grateful to Ms. Mitchell and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for its investigation.