Three Phoenix officers involved in the “brutalizing” assault of a deaf, Black man with cerebral palsy won’t face criminal charges—just a single day of unpaid suspension. The decision is being condemned as “a failure of internal responsibility” and is raising concerns about President Donald Trump’s promise to grant police broader immunity from prosecution.

In early 2024, Phoenix officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue beat and Tased Tyron McAlpin—a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy—after wrongly identifying him as the source of a disturbance. Bodycam footage captured the assault, showing McAlpin attacked without provocation. The punishment, announced Tuesday by interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan, amounted to a 24-hour suspension. McAlpin spent 24 days in jail.

“The decision to suspend the officers reflects our commitment to accountability and maintaining public trust,” Sullivan said in a press release per Phoenix New Times. Two officers will also undergo additional de-escalation training, but the department declined to name the officers or specify who must complete the training.

Elizabeth Venable, a justice advocate with Phoenix’s Fund for Empowerment, called the punishment “a failure of internal responsibility,” pointing to the contrast between the officers’ 24-hour suspensions and the 24 days McAlpin was imprisoned on fabricated charges. 

“They’re essentially receiving no punishment whatsoever, besides losing a day’s pay,” she said. “And I think they can afford it.”

The turning point came when ABC15 aired bodycam footage. It showed officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue ignoring the actual 911 suspect—a white man—and zeroing in on Tyron McAlpin as he quietly walked away from a Circle K. Without warning, they tackled him. Then they punched him. Then they tased him, again and again, as he screamed. Officers later slapped McAlpin with charges, including resisting arrest and aggravated assault. He spent nearly a month behind bars—until the footage forced prosecutors to backtrack.

“If not for that footage,” Venable added, “the whole thing might have been completely swept under the rug.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump posted the body cam footage to X, calling it "unconscionable" and replies poured in:

“So they give the white criminal they were called for, the benefit of the doubt and go straight into brutalizing the black disabled guy. FFS.”

“Soon Trump will give police complete immunity from prosecution. It will get so much worse,” another warned.

“Officer Harris should be let go, prosecuted for assault, and not be allowed near a police department again,” one responded.

“Literally just jumped out of his car and beat up the first Black man he saw because a white guy... told them a story… pure evil. ACAB,” another said.

The timing couldn’t be more consequential. The release of the video came just months after a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report detailed systemic abuse and racial discrimination by the Phoenix Police Department.

Among its findings: “PhxPD engages in racially disparate law enforcement that harms Black, Hispanic, and Native American people.” The report also criticized the department’s denial of those patterns, stating, “PhxPD claims it is unaware of any evidence of discriminatory policing despite longstanding community concern.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan is a contender for the department’s permanent chief position.

President Donald Trump has promised greater legal protections for law enforcement officers, though specifics remain unclear.

“We're going to give our police their power back, and we're going to give them immunity from prosecution, so they're not prosecuted for doing their job,” Trump declared at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, back in May 2024. Months later, during a July 31 interview at the NABJ convention, Trump clarified that this protection wouldn’t apply across the board to all cases of police misconduct.