Arizona officials release bodycam video in fatal shooting

Police in Mesa, Ariz., released footage this week of an officer shooting an unarmed man in a hotel in 2016.

The release of the police body camera video came hours after a jury acquitted Mesa police Officer Philip Brailsford of second-degree murder charge in the January 2016 shooting of Daniel Shaver, a 26-year-old Texas man.

The footage was posted on azcentral.com on Thursday.  

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In the video, police can be seen shouting commands at Shaver in the hallway of a Mesa La Quinta Inn & Suites. At one point, after Shaver briefly puts his hands behind his back, a sergeant tells Shaver that the police will shoot him if he does it again.

Shaver, who was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the encounter, can be heard crying and telling officers not to shoot him.

He is then told by police to get to begin crawling toward them. Shaver then appears to put one of his hands back toward his waist, and Brailsford fires at him.

The officer claimed that he thought Shaver may have been trying to reach for a weapon.

No weapon was found on Shaver’s person. 

In his trial, according to azcentral.com, Brailsford said that he would have acted the exact same way if he was put in the situation again.

Brailsford, who was fired from the Mesa police force two months after the shooting, was also acquitted of a lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.