On Thursday, an Arizona jury acquitted former Mesa cop Philip Brailsford in the January 2016 death of Daniel Shaver. Although Brailsford fatally shot the unarmed Texas man while he crawled down a hotel hallway, he has been cleared on both second-degree murder charges as well as the lesser offense of reckless manslaughter. The Mesa Police Department has now released bodycam footage that shows a crying and begging Shaver, who appears confused while trying to obey instructions before Brailsford shoots him.
The bodycam footage — which is both graphic and disturbing and viewable here — picks up with Shaver kneeling and laying face down in the hallway as ordered. A cop (one of five who arrived on the scene) tells him not to move and to keep his hands behind his head with feet crossed. The officer states, “If you move, we are going to consider that a threat, and we are going to deal with it and you may not survive it, do you understand me?” Shaver responds, “Yes, sir.” More instructions (including arguably contradictory ones) continue while Shaver sobs:
Officer: “You are to keep your legs crossed, do you understand me?”
Shaver: “Yes, sir.”
Officer: “You are to put both of your hands straight down in front of you. Push yourself up to a kneeling position.”
Officer: “I said, keep your legs crossed!”
Shaver: “I’m sorry.”
Officer: “I didn’t say this was a conversation. Hands up in the air! You do that again we’re shooting you, do you understand?”
Shaver: “Please, do not shoot me.”
Officer: “Then listen to my instructions!”
Shaver: “I’m trying to just do what you say.”
Officer: “Don’t talk! Listen! Hands straight up in the air. Do not put your hands down for any reason. You think you’re gonna fall, you’re gonna fall on your face. Your hands go back in the small of your back or down, we are going to shoot you, do you understand me?”
Shaver: “Yes, sir.”
Officer: “Crawl towards me!”
Shaver: “Yes, sir.”
At around 4:10 in the video, Shaver puts his hands down and crawls down the hallway. His hand briefly moves back toward his waist, at which point, Brailsford fires his rifle, fatally shooting Shaver.
CBS News reports that prosecutors argued that Brailsford believed Shaver was reaching for a gun, and one detective testified that Brailsford may have indeed believed this, but it was also possible that Shaver was “pulling up his loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down.”
Vice News reports that Mesa police had responded to a call about “someone pointing a gun out of the window” at the hotel. The BBC notes that the Mesa Police report reflected that an airsoft pellet gun was inside the room. Shaver, who was in Arizona for work (he worked in the pest control industry), reportedly used the pellet gun during the course of his job duties.
The bodycam footage has been described by civil rights activist Shaun King as “one of the worst I’ve ever witnessed.”
(Via AZ Central, Vice News, BBC, BNO News & Shaun King on Twitter)