Daniel
 Shaver, a 26-year-old husband and father of two from Texas, was on a 
business trip to Arizona on January 18, when a police officer shot and 
killed him in a La Quinta Inn & Suites - as he begged for his life. 
Now, according to The Arizona Republic, the officer, Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, is charged with second-degree murder and fired from the Mesa, Arizona police force.
The story of Shaver's death and the aftermath is heartbreaking, angering and, in part, confusing.
A report
 that includes eye-witness accounts, audio and video of the incident 
reveals that Shaver was on the ground, crying and crawling towards 
Brailsford while he pleaded for his life. "Please don't shoot me," 
Shaver said. But Brailsford unloaded five rounds from his AR-15 rifle 
into Shaver, who died in a hotel hallway from the bullet wounds.
Shaver's
 wife, Laney Sweet, has spent the last several months seeking justice 
for her husband's death and now that Brailsford is facing charges, she's
 trying to ensure he doesn't strike a plea deal. "I can't bring him 
back, but I will fight for justice for him," she told The Arizona Republic. "My kids are absolutely heartbroken and I can't fix it."
In an emotionally charged Facebook post,
 Sweet has described not knowing what happened to her husband for a full
 48 hours after his death. "I had to do my own investigating after not 
hearing from him/him not showing up to work, that led me to call every 
hospital, jail and police station searching for answers," she wrote.
"Unfortunately,
 I did finally find him when calling the local coroner. No one had the 
respect or empathy to call me and our children and tell us that Daniel 
had been taken from us. Not only that, but not one detective assigned to
 the case has called me back after leaving voice mails seeking answers."
"He
 was my best friend," she continued. "The love of my life. A son. A 
brother. Many people's friend. The glue that held me together. He was 
madly in love with his two daughters."
Shaver
 spent 25 days out of every month on the road, according to Sweet, who 
said her husband handled pest removal for companies. Part of his job, The Washington Post said, included bringing pellet guns with him where he traveled.
On the evening of Jan. 18, Shaver was in his hotel room with a man and a woman. Reports say
 Shaver was likely intoxicated. A person outside the hotel notified 
authorities that someone inside one of the rooms had a rifle. At some 
point, The Washington Post reported, the man left the room and police arrived, calling Shaver and asking him to step into the hallway.
Body camera-footage, according to The Arizona Republic,
 shows Shaver on the ground, his hands above his head. Shaver tried to 
raise himself up at one point, when an officer, according to the Republic, told him they'd shoot him if he did that again. "No, please don't shoot me," Shaver said.
Shaver
 didn't seem to have a weapon and acting on an officer's orders, he 
started crawling towards the police. When he reached the woman's purse, 
which was in the hallway, he made a move to crawl past it. Brailsford, 
noticing Shaver's hand reach toward his body, yelled "don't" before 
shooting him five times. Brailsford told investigators "a million 
things" raced through his head during the incident and that he felt 
threatened by Shaver on the ground, according to The Washington Post.
"The
 use of deadly physical force by law enforcement is governed by Arizona 
law and is always a tragedy when the loss of life results," Maricopa 
County Attorney Bill Montgomery said, according to The Arizona Republic.
 "After carefully reviewing the relevant facts and circumstances, we 
have determined that the use of deadly physical force was not justified 
in this instance."
In the wake of Shaver's death, his widow's Facebook page has become a regularly chronicle or mourning and sadness.
She has started a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of general life expenses as well as legal fees. So far, she's raised nearly $25,000.


 
 On Twitter
 On Twitter On Google+
 On Google+ On Facebook
 On Facebook On LinkedIn
 On LinkedIn On Pinterest
 On Pinterest On RSS Feed
 On RSS Feed Get the Latest Weirdest News directly into your mail Box...!!!
 Get the Latest Weirdest News directly into your mail Box...!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 

No comments:
Post a Comment