Jonathan Meisters was loading boxes into a car when members of the Hawthorne Police Department arrived in response to a call that there may have been a burglary at the house in Hawthorne, California.
CBS reports that the deaf man claims the police didn't give him the chance to explain before placing handcuffs on him and stunning him into submission.
The police apparently told Meisters to stop loading the boxes, but he of course didn't hear their orders. Upon seeing the officers, he tried to communicate using sign language.
According to the Daily Mail, one of the officers mistook his gestures as potentially violent or threatening. The officers punched, kicked, and even allegedly shot him twice with a stun gun.
After the incident, which took place on Feb. 13, police took the unconscious Meisters to the hospital and charged him with police assault. The charge has since been dropped and the officers are facing a lawsuit.
Meister is suing officers Jeffrey Salmon, Jeffrey Tysl, Erica Bristow, and Mark Hultgren for violating his rights as a disabled person under the American with Disabilities Act.
The lawsuit claims that the Hawthorne Police Dept. doesn't provide its officers sufficient information to deal with the disabled, specifically the deaf or hard of hearing.
The Hawthorne Police released a statement in response to the lawsuit: 'Hawthorne Police Department officers are trained to deal with incidents where communication, for various reasons, can sometimes be difficult. Officers make every effort to communicate effectively and bring every one of these incidents to a peaceful resolution.'