Authorities release video of deadly Arizona police shooting
PHOENIX (AP) – Authorities have released the unedited video of an Arizona police officer fatally shooting an unarmed man outside his hotel room as officers responded to a call that someone there was pointing a gun out a window.
The 18-minute body-camera video was released shortly after former Officer Philip Mitchell Brailsford was acquitted Thursday on a murder charge in the January 2016 shooting death of Daniel Shaver of Granbury, Texas.
The release of the full video marks the first time the face-to-face encounter between officers and Shaver has been available to the public outside a courtroom. It was played at the beginning of Brailsford’s trial in late October.
The footage, taken from Brailsford’s point of view, shows the shooting and the tense moments leading up to it.
Officers ordered Shaver to lie down face-first in the hallway and not make any sudden movements or risk being shot.
At one point, Shaver puts his hands behind his back.
“Hands up in the air!” yelled Sgt. Charles Langley, who was leading the police team that responded to the call. “You do that again, we’re shooting you.”
“Please do not shoot me,” Shaver said, sobbing.
He was ordered to crawl toward officers. As he inched forward, he reached toward the waistband of his shorts, leading Brailsford to open fire. He said he believed Shaver was grabbing a handgun to fatally shoot him.
Authorities have said it looked as though Shaver was pulling up his loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down as he crawled.
No gun was found on Shaver’s body, but two pellet rifles related to his pest-control job were later found in his hotel room.
While the acquittal clears Brailsford of criminal liability, Shaver’s widow, Laney Sweet, and Shaver’s parents have filed wrongful-death lawsuits against the suburban Phoenix city of Mesa.
Brailsford served as a Mesa officer for about two years before he was fired for violating department policy.
Portions of the video had been released in May 2016 after The Associated Press and other news organizations requested that it be unsealed. The previously released footage showed officers taking cover in a hotel hallway as they waited for Shaver and a woman to exit his room and ended just before they walked out.