Daniel Shaver, unarmed man killed
by Arizona police officer, cried and begged for life before shooting
Unarmed man killed by Arizona cop
cried, begged for life
NY Daily News
BYJASON SILVERSTEIN
Updated: Wednesday, March 30,
2016, 2:49 PM
An unarmed man who was shot and
killed by an Arizona police officer in January cried, complied with police
orders and begged for his life before the fatal firing, according to a newly
released police report.
Mesa Police Officer Philip
Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of Daniel
Shaver, a 26-year-old Texas man. Authorities have declined to release
Brailsford’s body cam footage from the deadly encounter.
But a report released Tuesday
includes extensive description of the footage, detailing Shaver’s desperate
final moments before Brailsford fired five shots at him with an AR-15 rifle.
Police confronted Shaver January
8 after responding to reports of a man pointing a rifle out the fifth-floor
window of a La Quinta hotel.
The night of his death, Shaver
had invited a man and woman at the hotel to his room for drinks, according to
the report.
After some shots of rum, the man
asked Shaver about a case that appeared to hold a musical instrument. Shaver
opened it to reveal a pellet gun and dead sparrow inside. Shaver told them he
was on a business trip with Wal-Mart and “his job is to kill all of the birds
that get inside the buildings,” according to the report.
Shaver then briefly pointed the
pellet gun out the window.
When police found Shaver, they warned
him that he “may not survive” if he did anything that could be considered a
threat, the report says.
Brailsford’s body cam shows
Shaver appeared to making small jerking motions while he had his hands behind
his back, according to the report.
)
An officer yelled at him, “If you
do that again, we are shooting you. Do you understand?”
“No, please don’t shoot me,”
Shaver said.
At one point, Shaver’s hand
appeared to move toward his waist. An officer was heard yelling, “Don’t,”
before Brailsford fired.
Shaver was not armed. His hand
motion appeared to be him “attempting to pull his shorts up as they were
falling off,” the report says.
Previous reports have indicated
Shaver may have been drunk at the time of the shooting — despite telling
officers he was not — and possibly did not understand police orders. Shaver’s
autopsy report has not been released.
Brailsford was charged with
second-degree murder and fired from the department. The new report reveals
Brailsford had etched on his rifle: “You’re F---ed.”
Shaver’s widow and the mother of
his two girls, Laney Sweet, posted a YouTube video Tuesday saying prosecutors
are considering a plea deal for the ex-cop. The Maricopa County Attorney has
not commented on the case.
Texas police officer fired for
excessive force in shooting death of naked, unarmed teenager David Joseph
BY NICOLE HENSLEY
Austin police Officer Geoffrey
Freeman had an array of tools to subdue a naked and unarmed 17-year-old boy
without lethal force, but instead, he drew his firearm and shot David Joseph.
The Austin Police Department
fired Freeman, 41, Monday afternoon in response to the February shooting that
killed David — a Connally High School senior and son of an immigrant mother
from Haiti — for violating its excessive force policies.
“Officer Freeman’s decision to
draw his weapon when he exited his vehicle was unwarranted,” Austin Police
Chief Art Acevedo wrote in a memo detailing Freeman’s disciplinary action for
violating the Civil Service Commission rules.
Acevedo listed Freeman’s baton,
stun gun, pepper spray, a bean bag shot gun stashed in the trunk and even
physical force as ways to stop David without lethal force.
It’s unclear if Freeman, a
10-year veteran of the Austin force, will face criminal charges related to the
Feb. 8 shooting. He has 10 days to appeal Acevedo’s decision.
“My family is glad to hear that
Officer Freeman will not hurt any other unarmed black men,” David’s
brother,Fally Joseph, said in a statement to KXAN-TV. “When he took my brother
away from us, he stole something no one can ever give us back. We are glad to
know that the City of Austin thinks David’s life mattered, and that Officer
Freeman will not be on the streets again.”
Freeman encountered the teen —
nicknamed by friends “Pronto” — running around a street at 10:25 a.m., blocks
from David’s home in the city’s northern suburbs. Following several complaints
from residents, the young black subject — clothed at the time — had been
harassing residents, even chasing a man.
“Sounds like this guy could
either be, he’s 10-86 (subject with mental illness) and losing it or high or
something,” Freeman told dispatch.
Instead of waiting for additional
officers per department policy when engaging with “subjects displaying symptoms
of substance-induced excited delirium,” Freeman approached David alone. He
stopped his cruiser within 90 feet of David and got out of the vehicle drawing
his weapon.
David then charged Freeman,
refusing to stop despite commands and within 6.7 seconds, the cop fired at
least one gunshot, striking David out of sight from the cruiser’s dash cam
footage. Backup wouldn’t arrive for another minute and a half.
An autopsy found no trace of
gunpowder on David’s body meaning the teenager and Freeman were separated by
several feet at the time of the shooting.
Additionally, a toxicology report
determined David had traces of Xanax, anti-histamines and marijuana in his
system, his family told KXAN-TV, but the results conflicted with Freeman’s
belief David was experiencing excited delirium.
“No one was under a threat of
imminent harm or suffering serious bodily injury or death by Mr. David,”
Acevedo determined.
