Fate of former Mesa police officer up to jury

Attorneys in the trial of a former Mesa police officer charged with murder made impassioned closing arguments on Tuesday, offering two contrasting narratives of why Philip “Mitch” Brailsford shot and killed an unarmed Texas man in a hotel hallway two years ago.

Brailsford’s fate now rests with the eight-member jury who will begin on Wednesday to deliberate if the former officer is guilty of second-degree murder.

The jurors also have an option of convicting Brailsford of manslaughter if the jury believes the shooting wasn’t murder but was still unjustified.

Brailsford is charged in the Jan. 18, 2016, on-duty shooting of Daniel Shaver, 27, who was his knees, crying and begging not to be shot before Brailsford fired five times from his AR-15 rifle.

Shaver raised his right hand near his waist, Brailsford testified, which

the former officer said prompted him to shoot because it looked like the Texas man was reaching for a gun.

Deputy District Attorney Susie Charbel called Brailsford, 27, a “killer” for shooting Shaver five times.

“He was a police officer when he killed Daniel (Shaver), just not a reasonable one,” Charbel said of Brailsford. “He just became a killer that night.”

Brailsford’s lawyer, Michael Piccarreta, said the former officer had done his job and followed the training he learned at the academy.

Piccarreta said Brailsford shot Shaver because he was protecting himself, five other officers and a woman police had taken into custody.

“The last thing in the world that Mitch Brailsford wanted to do that night was shoot. His goal wasn’t to kill Daniel Shaver,” Piccarreta told the jury. “Shaver is not a bad person, but his actions are what brought the police that night.”

The trial, which has lasted just over a month, comes as on-duty police shootings are under heightened scrutiny and have prompted protests, often because of videos of the encounters.

But unlike other high-profile policeshootings, in this case, presiding Judge George Foster prohibited the release of the on-body camera footage depicting the shooting to the public until he is either acquitted or sentenced.

A point Charbel emphasized during her closing statements is that Brailsford used his training as an officer as a defense for shooting Shaver. But, she said, no reasonable, trained officer would shoot a person who was on his or her knees and crying.

“(Brailsford) doesn’t get a pass because he was wearing a police uniform that night,” Charbel said.

But Piccarreta said Brailsford followed the tactics of a well-trained officer. He said that if the jurors believe the training is wrong, that’s not something that Brailsford should be accountable for.

“Shaver’s choices are what led to his death,” Piccarreta said.

The shooting occurred after police were called to a La Mesa Quinta Inn & Suites on a report of a person pointing a gun out of a fifth-floor window. A couple in a hotel hot tub told staff they saw a silhouette with a gun pointed toward a nearby highway.

After the shooting, police found that Shaver was unarmed. They did find a pellet gun in his hotel room. He used it for his job as a pest-control worker. Shaver was in Mesa that night on a work-related trip from Granbury, Texas.

Video footage of the shooting from two police officers’ on-body cameras, including Brailsford’s, show Shaver was confused by some of Sgt. Charles Langley’s commands when he exited his hotel room.

A woman he had met earlier that night also exited his room, and police took her into custody.

At one point, while Shaver was on his knees, he put his hands behind his back and was ordered to put his hands back up in the air. Langley, one of six officers in the hallway who has since retired from the force and moved to the Philippines, warned that Shaver would get shot if he put his hands down again, the video shows.

Shaver began to cry and said, “Please don’t shoot me.”

The video was shown to the jury throughout the trial.

Trying to follow Langley’s commands, Shaver began to crawl on his hands and knees toward the six officers, the video shows. But Shaver stopped crawling and raised his right hand near his waistband, prompting Brailsford to fire.

“He didn’t even get to see the face of the man who shot him,” Charbel said during her closing statements.

“The last thing in the world that Mitch Brailsford wanted to do that night was shoot. His goal wasn’t to kill Daniel Shaver. Shaver is not a bad person, but his actions are what brought the police that night.” Michael Piccarreta Defense attorney for Philip “Mitch” Brailsford