Former Mesa Arizona police officer Philip Brailsford has been found not guilty of second-degree murder charges in the shooting of Daniel Shaver, an unarmed man.
In January 2016, Brailsford shot and killed Daniel Shaver in a La Quinta Inn & Suites hallway after responding to a call about a man pointing a gun outside of his hotel room window.
According to police reports, the “gun” found in Shaver’s room was used for his job which involves the killing of birds and is more likely to be an airsoft or pellet gun.
The shooting’s bodycam footage was released to the public after the verdict.
After being confronted by six Mesa police officers, Shaver is seen on his knees, begging and crying not to be shot by the aggressive officers shortly before he was killed.
Brailsford demanded Shaver to crawl towards the police multiple times and even gave him instructions on how to maneuver his arms and legs.
“Listen to my instructions and do not make a mistake,” is what the former Mesa officer tells the begging man.
It wasn’t too long until the moment turned fatal, as Brailsford pointed his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and shot Shaver five times during one of his crawling attempts. According to police reports, Shaver’s movement “was also consistent with attempting to pull his shorts up as they were falling off.”
Brailsford argued Mr. Shaver’s reason for reaching his waistband was to retrieve a weapon. This statement was also written in the initial case report. It was later discovered no weapon was found on Shaver’s body.
The family of Mr. Shaver’s widow, Laney Sweet have gone on to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Mesa, along with the family of Daniel Shaver.
