PHOENIX — A Texas man fatally shot by a Mesa police officer in January was heard begging for his life moments before his death, according to a police report released Tuesday morning.
A witness and a transcription of officer video footage describe Daniel Shaver saying “Please don’t shoot me” and “Please don’t shoot,” just before an officer later identified as Philip "Mitch" Brailsford fired his service weapon.
Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder and was terminated from the Police Department.
On Tuesday, the Mesa Police Department released the police report, 911 calls and other material from its investigation of Brailsford's shooting of Shaver, who was unarmed, at a hotel in January.
The material released did not include officers' body camera video from the scene.
Shaver, 26, died after being shot in a hallway outside his room at a Mesa La Quinta Inn & Suites on Jan. 18. Brailsford was charged with one count of second-degree murder in a direct complaint by the County Attorney's Office on March 4.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said body-camera footage obtained from the officer was used in his office's review of the case. The fatal shooting was the result of unjustified deadly force, Montgomery said.
The county attorney's complaint stated Brailsford was "manifesting an extreme indifference to human life recklessly causing the death of another."
Shaver's widow, Laney Sweet, said earlier this month that she had grown more and more frustrated by the lack of details made available to the public, including the circumstances surrounding her husband's death, two months after it occurred. They are the parents of two young girls.
"I can't bring him back, but I will fight for justice for him," Sweet said. "My kids are absolutely heartbroken and I can't fix it."
Court records indicate Shaver could have been intoxicated at the time of his death and may not have understood what police were asking.
Officers were called to the La Quinta Inn shortly after 9 p.m. when guests at the pool reported seeing a person with a gun in a fifth-story window, police said.
Officers arrived at Shaver's hotel room and found him with an unidentified woman, whom Sweet said was visiting with a male colleague who had stepped outside to call his wife.
An unarmed Shaver and the woman were ordered to leave the hotel room and were then told to get on their hands and knees into the hallway, the county attorney's office said. The woman crawled toward the officers and was apprehended without incident.
"Shaver was cooperative, but sometimes confused by the commands and because of his possible intoxication," the report said. "The sergeant told Shaver that if he put his hands behind his back then he would be shot."
Records indicate Shaver was shot by Brailsford as Shaver made a motion with his right hand toward his waistline, possibly to pull his shorts up as they were sagging, the report said. Shaver was declared dead at the scene.
Investigators later found two pellet guns in Shaver's room, police said.
An autopsy report on Shaver has not yet been made public.
On March 21, the Mesa Police Department announced it had terminated Brailsford. Brailsford had 14 days to appeal the decision by Mesa Police Chief John Meza.
