In Januray of 2016, a man named Daniel Shaver was shot and killed by police in Mesa, Arizona. Shaver was unarmed and trying to comply with seemingly conflicting orders from police that he crawl towards them.
This was a horrible abuse of power by the police, but interestingly, there were no riots or even protests over it.
Reason reports:
Arizona Town To Pay $8 Million to Widow of Daniel Shaver, Shot While Crawling Unarmed Toward PoliceThe Arizona Republic reports that the town of Mesa, Arizona, reached an $8 million settlement last week with the widow of Daniel Shaver. Shaver is the unarmed man who was fatally shot while crawling down a hallway on his hands and knees toward police officers, begging them not to shoot him.In January 2016, Mesa police responded to a report of a man pointing a rifle out of a hotel window. It was in fact Shaver showing a pellet gun that he used at his exterminator job to a couple other hotel guests in his room.Police ordered Shaver out of the hotel room and onto the ground, with his hands behind his head. But instead of handcuffing Shaver, officers—bizarrely—started barking confusing and contradictory orders at him to crawl toward them. As a clearly terrified and drunk Shaver tried to crawl toward the police, he appeared to reach toward his waistband to pull up his sagging shorts. A Mesa officer, Philip Mitchell Brailsford, shot Shaver five times with an AR-15, killing him.The incident was part of a string of deadly police shootings of unarmed men caught on camera, including the killings of Philando Castille and Walter Scott*. Shaver’s death brought national media attention and bipartisan outrage to Mesa. As David French wrote in National Review, “I have seen soldiers deal with al Qaeda terrorists with more professionalism and poise.”
This is a video of the shooting. WARNING: GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING:
People are upset that the officer in this case still got his pension.
NBC News reported in 2019:
Police officer who fatally shot sobbing man temporarily rehired to apply for pensionA former Mesa, Arizona, police officer who was acquitted two years ago in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man seen on video pleading “please do not shoot me” was temporarily rehired by his department last year so he could apply for an accidental disability pension.Philip Mitchell Brailsford, 28, is now retired from the force with a tax-free pension worth $31,000 a year for life — and his attorney confirmed Friday that the settlement was a result of him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the shooting involving Daniel Shaver of Texas…”Any individual going through what he went through would be traumatized and suffer emotional distress, and as a result, it was best to medically retire,” Brailsford’s attorney, Michael Piccarreta, said.
A horrible turn of events, on every level.
Featured image via YouTube.
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