Moments before a Mesa, Arizona, police officer killed Daniel Shaver with five shots from an AR-15, Shaver was on all fours, pleading with officers not to shoot him, according to a newly released police report from the incident. Shaver, 26, from Texas, was killed on January 18. Philip Brailsford, the two-year Mesa Police Department officer who allegedly killed him, was fired from the department and charged with second-degree murder.
According to the police report, the officers who responded asked Shaver and a woman he was with to exit the room. Shaver exited, then raised his hands and dropped to his knees. An officer told him to lay on the ground, and he did. …
Officers ordered Shaver to crawl toward them, and he complied, “audibly sobbing” as he did so. As he crawled, he briefly moved his hand toward his waist and back toward his body, and Officer Brailsford began shooting.
“The movement of Shaver’s right arm in the recording was a very similar motion to someone drawing a pistol from their waist band,” the [police] report reads. However, it continues, “Shaver’s underwear were clearly visible and it appeared his shorts had fallen partially down his leg at that point. Shaver’s motion was also consistent with attempting to pull his shorts up as they were falling off.” …
BuzzFeed News notes that Laney Sweet, Shaver’s widow, recorded a conversation in which a prosecutor told her she could view the body camera footage, but only if she did not speak to the media about it.
http://gawker.com/please-dont-shoot-me-man-begged-before-cop-shot-and-1767973196