A suburban Phoenix police officer was charged with second-degree murder on Friday in connection with the fatal shooting of an unarmed Texas man at a hotel, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Philip Mitchell Brailsford, of the Mesa Police Department, should not have used deadly force in the Jan. 18 incident involving Daniel Shaver, 26, outside his hotel room.
Shaver was shot five times after police responded to a report of a man pointing a rifle out a window at a La Quinta Inn. Shaver was pronounced dead at the scene.
“After carefully reviewing the relevant facts and circumstances, we have determined that the use of deadly physical force was not justified in this instance,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement.
Brailsford could not be immediately reached for comment.
The incident is another in a series of shootings by police of unarmed people nationwide, sparking concern about the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
Marc Victor, an attorney for Shaver’s widow, Laney Sweet, called the charges a “good first step” to ensuring that justice was served for the victim, his wife and two young daughters.
“We expect that there will be a fair trial and we expect a just result,” he said.
Sweet has filed a $35 million wrongful death claim against Mesa over the incident. A claim is required before a lawsuit can be filed.
Police were called to the hotel southeast of Phoenix following reports of someone sticking a gun out a fifth-floor window.
Officers set up outside Shaver’s room and ordered him and a woman to leave, get on the hallway floor and crawl toward police, prosecutors said. The woman complied and was taken into custody.
Shaver was fatally shot when he made a motion with his right hand toward his waistline as he crawled toward officers, prosecutors said in a statement.
Police said investigators later found two pellet rifles in the hotel room.
Brailsford had been with the police department for more than two years. He was placed on administrative leave following the shooting.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-arizona-police-shooting-idUSKCN0W706C
Justice served in a messed up system where it all comes down to money and depending which side your on, you never lose. His attorney knows there’s no justice. The cop being charged, means just that.
Charges are one thing, but the odds of the pig actually serving any prison time are exceeded by the odds of him getting struck by lightning.
Or winning the Lotto.
The news here is not that a cop killed a innocent person in cold blood, but that he was actually charged with a crime.
The coproach will probably have his legal fees paid by the union or the city of
Phoenix. He will likely keep getting a paycheck through this. After all a coproach is innocent until proven …………………innocent
A pig is considered innocent until proven guilty. He’s also considered innocent AFTER being proven guilty.
The system will do everything possible to justify the actions of its enforcers. They’ll come up with excuses even a retarded child wouldn’t believe, and that’s enough to get them cleared.
For example, I once saw a case in which a couple of pigs repeatedly kicked a guy in the head when he was lying face-down on the ground in cuffs. Their excuse? “He was trying to bite our ankles.”
What’s next? Pigs saying, “I’m innocent because aliens from another dimension took control of my mind and forced me to do what I did”?