Video casts doubt on Arizona police shooting

MESA, Arizona — Newly released body-camera footage shows a police officer shooting an unarmed man in a hotel after the man pleaded with officers not to shoot him.

The video, released after a jury Thursday acquitted the officer of murder and manslaughter charges, stoked outrage and renewed calls for reforms in law enforcement.

‘‘This, to me, is the most horrific shooting I’ve ever seen,’’ Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the widow and the 5- and 8-year-old daughters of the man, Daniel Shaver, 26, said Saturday.

On Jan. 18, 2016, six officers were called to a hotel in Mesa, Arizona, after guests reported seeing a man with a gun in the window of a fifth-floor room. The video showed Shaver and a woman walking into a hallway as Officer Philip Brailsford trained an AR-15 rifle on them.

Another officer can be heard ordering them to get on the floor and threatening to shoot if they don't.

‘‘Please do not shoot me,’’ Shaver says.

The officer’s commands at times seemed contradictory.

‘‘Do not put your hands down for any reason,’’ he tells Shaver. ‘‘Your hands go back in the small of your back or down ... ’’

‘‘Yes, sir,’’ a tearful Shaver responds.

Then the officer commands, ‘‘Crawl towards me,’’ prompting Shaver to lower his hands to the floor and begin moving toward the camera.

A few seconds later, Shaver twists slightly to his right, his elbow pointing upward. Brailsford begins firing.

Police later learned that Shaver, of Granbury, Texas, had been in his room showing off a pellet gun that he used for his job in pest control.

Brailsford was fired two months after the shooting.

[AJIT SOLANKI/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS] Women display their voter identity cards Saturday as they wait to cast their vote during the first phase of the Gujarat state assembly election in Rajkot, India. Results of the election will be announced Dec. 18.