Former Mesa Police Officer Found Not Guilty Of Second Degree Murder

Former Mesa Police Officer Philip Mitchell Brailsford was found not guilty by a Maricopa County jury in the assassination of Daniel Shaver in May 2016. Brailsford was charged with second degree murder for fatally shooting the unarmed Shaver as he begged for his life.

“A police officer does not get to execute a begging, crying, unarmed citizen because he believes, without proof, he has some hidden handgun,” said Deputy Maricopa County attorney Susie Charbel during the trial.

The jury disagreed.

Maricopa County Bill Montgomery said prosecutors “determined that the use of deadly physical force was not justified in this instance.”

Shaver, a married man and father of two young girls, was at the hotel on a work trip from Texas. He was in his hotel room showing his pellet gun to friends. Mesa Police received a call about a man pointing a gun out of Shaver’s room’s window.

Brailsford had inscribed “You’re Fucked” on the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle he used to kill Shaver.

Photographyisnotacrime.com gives the following account:

Brailsford later told investigators that it was a “terrifying” experience for him as he watched the unarmed man crawling towards him – essentially saying he was in fear for his life.

But it was Shaver who was in fear for his life.

“Please don’t shoot me,” Shaver said according to a witness, who was also ordered to crawl towards police.

But Mesa Police Sergeant Charles Langley never gave him that assurance.

“There is a very severe possibility that if you make another mistake you are going to get shot,” Langley said according to prosecutor Susie Charbel as she read the transcript of the body cam footage in court.

“Shut up. I’m not here to be tactful and diplomatic with you. You listen, you obey.”

The incident took place on January 18, 2016 inside a fifth-floor hotel room where Shaver was showing his pellet guns to two acquaintances.

People downstairs saw a man through the window appearing to be pointing a gun from inside and called the front desk, who in turn, called police.

After police ordered them out the room, they issued several commands to Shaver, telling him to show his hands, then place his hands on his head, then come crawling towards them.

As he was crawling towards them, his shorts kept slipping off, so he reached back to pull them back up, only to be threatened with death by one officer, which was when Shaver begged them not to shoot him.

However, his shorts slipped off again, prompting him to pull them up again, which was when Brailsford fired, killing the 26-year-old man instantly.

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