Posted on 12/10/2017 10:03:51 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
A Maricopa County jury on Thursday found former Mesa police Officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford not guilty of second-degree murder charges in the 2016 shooting of an unarmed Texas man who was on his knees begging for his life.
Jurors deliberated for less than six hours over two days, finishing Thursday afternoon. The eight-member jury also found Brailsford not guilty of the lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.
The packed courtroom in Maricopa County Superior Court was quiet after one of Judge George Foster’s clerks read the verdict.
Brailsford was one of two officers in Arizona since 2005 who had been charged with murder in connection with an on-duty shooting.
The case ends during a time when on-duty police shootings have received heightened scrutiny. Some shootings, particularly those recorded on video, have prompted protests throughout the U.S.
Mesa police have released footage from Officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford’s body camera of the fatal shooting of an unarmed Texas man at a hotel in 2016. This edited video shows the moments leading up Daniel Shaver’s death. Mesa Police Department
Brailsford’s acquittal came after impassioned closing arguments that offered contrasting narratives of why Brailsford shot and killed 26-year-old Daniel Shaver in a hotel hallway two years ago.
Shaver was kneeling, crying and begging not to be shot after he was confronted by six Mesa police officers in a La Quinta Inn & Suites hallway Jan. 18, 2016. Brailsford, who was fired two months after the shooting, testified that he fired his AR-15 rifle five times because it appeared Shaver was reaching for a gun.
“If this situation happened exactly as it did that time, I would have done the same thing,” Brailsford said in his testimony.
Laney Sweet, Shaver’s widow, said she had no comment to make about the verdict as, crying, she exited an elevator with family.
Mark Geragos, Sweet’s lawyer, called the shooting an “execution.”
“The justice system miserably failed Daniel (Shaver) and his family,” Geragos said.
Brailsford’s lawyer, Michael Piccarreta, said he had expected the jury would come back with a positive outcome for his client.
“We had confidence that the jury would recognize this as a tragedy, not a murder, and that Mitch Brailsford acted in a split-second as he was trained,” he said.
After the verdict, Brailsford and his family were escorted by a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy out of the courtroom through a back door.
Footage of shooting, captured on two police on-body cameras, formed the foundation of the prosecution’s case. The judge did not allow jurors to hear about an etching on the dust cover of the rifle Brailsford used to shoot Shaver, which said “You’re f–ked,” because he felt it was prejudicial.
Throughout the trial, which began in late October, Deputy County Attorney Susie Charbel portrayed Brailsford as a “killer” who claimed he feared for his life to cover up an unjustified shooting.
In her closing arguments, Charbel told the jury that an intoxicated Shaver looked “pathetic” before he was killed and didn’t get a chance to know who shot him.
“(Brailsford) doesn’t get a pass because he was wearing a police uniform that night,” Charbel said.
Piccarreta said Brailsford followed the tactics of a well-trained officer. If jurors believe the training is wrong, he said, that’s not something Brailsford should be accountable for.
Piccarreta said Brailsford shot Shaver because he was protecting himself, five other officers and a woman police had taken into custody.
“The last thing in the world that Mitch Brailsford wanted to do that night was shoot. His goal wasn’t to kill Daniel Shaver,” Piccarreta told the jury. “Shaver is not a bad person, but his actions are what brought the police that night.”
YouTube Video: Execution of Daniel Shaver
I learned an important lesson here.
When a LEO orders you face down, arms outreached, do not follow any additional orders.
Let them come and cuff you.
You will get a drunk in public charge, no big deal.
The “Simon says game” will get you killed.
I wonder how many lost this game before body Cams?
> I learned an important lesson here. When a LEO orders you face down, arms outreached, do not follow any additional orders. Let them come and cuff you.<
Excellent comment.
> The “Simon says game” will get you killed. <
And that’s just what it was. A bizarre, deadly game of Simon says.
“When a LEO orders you face down, arms outreached, do not follow any additional orders.”
That was my thought too.
There were 6 cops there with the guy laid out prone - why have him move?
Incredibly bad shoot.
Is it true that the jury was not allowed to view the video?
Also, why would they leave the woman’s purse - and have the guy crawl past it? Of all the unknowns, this was one of the biggest. The cop shot the kid because he was supposedly afraid for his life, and yet he was going to have the kid crawl over the purse - potentially an easy grab for a hidden weapon.
Worst shoot I’ve seen (where the cop walks).
I hope the family sues him for millions in civil court.
“stopped for armed robbery”
Same thing happened to me when I was just 17. All told I think there was 8 squads around me when they finally pulled me over (squads on both sides of the road - and two driving towards me on the shoulder).
With shotguns trained on me over over their doors, they had me throw out my car keys, put my hands on top of the car (which I still remember wondering how I was supposed to do that from inside the car), finally I was ordered to get out and lie down on my face next to the car.
Piece of cake, they came up & cuffed me and put me in one of the squads. A half-hour later, I’m driving away towards home - absolutely no problem.
The exact same thing should have happened to this poor kid.
Really? That's all you've got?
The one thing I am very curious about is the initial 911 call.
I keep picturing some liberal gun control nutcase who saw a gun being passed around in the room and decided some evil NRA member needed to be taught a lesson and exaggerated or outright lied about what was happening.
In today’s hostile antigun climate it could happen.
Joe, perhaps you should breath allot and step back from the keyboard. No reason to get so heated. From where I sit your comment could be construed as a threat. Would not like to see it go south for you or another. Here at FR we are suppose to be a community of conservatives supporting the Constitution, and assisting in the endeavor to drain the swamp. Let us quit supporting the status quo.
Perhaps your post was meant to be sarcastic? If not let me explain a few things to you.
First you need to look up the meaning of the word “ambush”.
Next, yes Shaver was in AZ working for a TX based pest control company. But he wasn’t doing normal pest control, i.e. spraying, setting mouse or rat traps, etc. but his job was go into big box stores like Walmarts, Lowes, etc. and sometimes, if other methods failed such as netting, shooting birds that had become trapped inside by shooting them with a pellet rifle, hence the reason he had a pellet rifle.
Here is a job description I found for one such job. Note that one of the qualifications is “An appreciation of hunting, fishing and trapping”.
https://public.businessbymiles.com/Job?LinkID=188fa7cb-e2e7-4a2f-b945-102ba4f54b0b
If you don’t think birds are a problem inside stores, watch this.
Customer captures bird on video inside Walmart eating food for weeks
Last, if he was conveying money or drugs for the cartels, he would have to be the stupidest drug runner in the history of the world to only be armed with a pellet rifle. Not to mention that if Shaver had been involved in any criminal behavior or had anything more than a pellet rifle in his room, that would have been brought up at trial to be sure.
You seem overly sensitive on this topic.
That label will stick to you.
You own it.
Why are you assuming that cop hater?
You own that comment. It sticks to you forever.
Sorry about that.
Ambush?
The cops had multiple weapons already drawn on the suspect. But you say Shaver was attempting to ambush them while crawling across the floor? Did you know an autopsy revealed Shaver's blood alcohol level was .29, more than three times the local definition of intoxication?
Come on.
Based on the video, the suspect wasn't even able to comply with convoluted commands, let alone ambush anyone.
No winners here. Based on the suspects demeanor, him crying, pleading etc., and with multiple guns drawn down on him, I personally would not have pulled the trigger at that moment.
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