This article is about the injustice and the unfair shooting of Daniel Shaver. At the age of 26 on January 18th, 2016 Daniel lost his life. Daniel was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Hillwood High School in 2007. He moved to Texas where he had a wife and 2 daughters. Daniel was soon employed as a pest control specialist and was visiting Mesa for a business trip where he was soon after killed. He was only 26 years old.
Philip Mitchel Brailsford, the name of the cop that was responsible for Daniel’s death. He was of the same age as Daniel. He was employed in the Mesa police department in 2013. Philip had also had an investigation done on him for body-slamming a teen during an unarmed arrest in a grocery store. According to the story of the police report, Daniel while on his business trip invited two of his friends over to his room.
He decided to show them one of his air rifles that he used for shooting birds in grocery stores. While sticking it out the window showing his friends the scope, someone spotted him with the gun in his hand and immediately reported it to the hotel. The hotel wasted no time calling the police. One of Danieals friends named Nunez left the hotel room right before six armed police officers entered the hotel around 9:20 pm. The officers were led by Sergeant Charles Langley and appeared at Daniel’s door. They gave Daniel and his other friend orders to come out. At this point in time it’s important to note that Daniel and his friends had many drinks prior to this so they were very intoxicated.
After receiving no response they called his room number where we learned later after the incident they both had not heard the commands according to his other friend Portillo. Portillo was able to come out of the apartment and into custody unharmed. Daniel came out of his room and was ordered to lie prone and cross his legs. It wasn’t Brailsford who was giving the commands to Shaver but it was actually Langley. Daniel was then ordered to come to a kneeling position and keep his hands behind his head, while doing so he uncrossed his legs, Langley shouted at him that he needed to keep his legs crossed. Startled he put his hands behind his back and again was shouted at. Daniel’s last words were “Please don’t shoot me”. He was ordered to crawl on all fours towards the officers. While doing so he reached for his waistband and Brailsford opened fire, Daniel was killed instantly. Daniel was unarmed and the police believe that he was pulling up his pants to prevent them from slipping down. Brailsford was fired from the Mesa police department due to multiple violations. However, after going to court to be trialed for second-degree murder, he was found not guilty. Brailsford testified that he believed Shaver was reaching for a gun.
