Daniel Shaver Begged For Life Before Being Fatally Shot By Arizona Police Officer Philip Brailsford

While begging for his life, Daniel Shaver was fatally shot by an Arizona police officer in January. According to a newly released police report, Mesa Officer Phillip Brailsford killed the 26-year-old man, despite being unarmed and complying with police orders.

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Officer Brailsford has been fired from the department and charged with second-degree murder for the death of Shaver. So far, officials have refused to provide the officer’s body camera footage of the deadly incident. However, 911 calls, radio traffic, scene photographs, and a thorough report providing a detailed description of the events contained in the video have been released.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on January 8, police received a call about a man pointing a rifle out the window of a La Quinta hotel. Witnesses at the hotel told officers that the man was in room 502 on the fifth floor.

According to officials, Shaver was staying at the hotel and had invited a man and a woman to his room for drinks. At some point, the couple asked Shaver to open up a large case that was in the room.

Shaver opened it and pulled out a pellet rifle, as well as a dead sparrow. Shaver explained to the couple that he was in the area on a business trip for Wal-Mart and that he was hired to get rid of birds inside their buildings. Afterwards, Shaver pointed the gun out of the window.

When officers confronted Shaver in the hotel room, he was brought out into the hallway and ordered to go down on his knees. With his gun drawn, one officer asked if he understood the command.

“No, please don’t shoot me,” Shaver responded.

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The report’s description of the body cam footage revealed Shaver was crying and complying with all police orders, even one that demanded he crawl toward the officers. One officer is heard warning Shaver not do anything that could be interpreted as a threat or he “may not survive.”

“The male was instructed to crawl towards us with his hands in the air,” one officer wrote in a supplemental report. “As the male came close to us I saw him abruptly drop his right hand from above his head and reach back to the small of his back. I immediately perceived this as a threat and a movement to reach a handgun.”

According to the report, Officer Brailsford’s body cam shows Shaver reaching behind his back and making small jerking motions.

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It was determined that Shaver did not have a gun, but was trying to adjust his shorts when Brailsford shot him five times with an AR-15 rifle. Some reports indicate that Shaver was intoxicated at the time and may not have understood the officer’s warnings.

“Shaver was cooperative, but sometimes confused by the commands and because of his possible intoxication,” according to a court document released earlier this month.

When police initially found Shaver, the woman was still in the hotel room with him. Officers ordered her out of the room and into the hallway. She was also asked to crawl towards officers and was apprehended. The man had left the room just before the cops arrived.

When investigators searched the hotel room, they found two pellet rifles. Shaver was declared dead at the scene.

Laney Sweet, Shaver’s widow, can’t comprehend why more details about her husband’s untimely death haven’t been released to the public. On Tuesday, she posted a YouTube video explaining her frustration.

Officer Brailsford was fired by the Mesa Police Department on March 21. An internal report indicated the phrase “You’re F***ed” was etched into the side of the cop’s rifle, which is a violation of the department’s service weapons policy.

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Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery viewed Officer Brailsford’s body cam footage and determined the shooting death of Daniel Shaver was “unjustified.” He also said the officer’s actions demonstrated an “extreme indifference to human life.”

[Photo by Jill Torrance/Getty Images]