Former Cop Acquitted Of Fatally Shooting Unarmed Man Who Begged For His Life

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-cop-acquitted-fatally-shooting-174933492.html

Shaver, who had been ordered out of his hotel room by police, was commanded to lie facedown in the hallway and to refrain from making sudden movements.

The married father of two from Granbury, Texas, can be heard crying and appears confused by some of the officers’ commands. On the video, Shaver says, “Please do not shoot me,” as he obeys a command to crawl toward the officers.

As he inched forward, Shaver reached toward his waistband. The movement prompted Brailsford to fire his AR-15 rifle five times, killing Shaver.

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This is why I think corrupt cops aren't a race issue. This guy was white and was a law abiding citizen but a dumb ass corrupt police officer shot him anyway. Worst a jury acquits him.

99percenter said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-cop-acquitted-fatally-shooting-174933492.html



This is why I think corrupt cops aren't a race issue. This guy was white and was a law abiding citizen but a dumb ass corrupt police officer shot him anyway. Worst a jury acquits him.

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That video is going to bankrupt the city

This is unacceptable, the guy was legit crying and begging for his life and posed no risk to the officer.

Outrageous. I can't believe he was acquitted. Despicable conduct by that officer.

99percenter said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-cop-acquitted-fatally-shooting-174933492.html



This is why I think corrupt cops aren't a race issue. This guy was white and was a law abiding citizen but a dumb ass corrupt police officer shot him anyway. Worst a jury acquits him.

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I’m beginning to think that every police shooting should be reviewed by the DoJ. The officer had the drop on him and had tactical advantage and he still shot him 5 times giving him zero chance of survival. I don’t know what they are teaching these punks but a “shaking in his boots” police officer is a dangerous thing indeed.

chuckiechan said:

I’m beginning to think that every police shooting should be reviewed by the DoJ. The officer had the drop on him and had tactical advantage and he still shot him 5 times giving him zero chance of survival. I don’t know what they are teaching these punks but a “shaking in his boots” police officer is a dangerous thing indeed.

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This DOJ probably wouldn't do such a thing. Obama tried to deal with this issue and people accused him of race baiting. This just isn't a race issue.

99percenter said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-cop-acquitted-fatally-shooting-174933492.html



This is why I think corrupt cops aren't a race issue. This guy was white and was a law abiding citizen but a dumb ass corrupt police officer shot him anyway. Worst a jury acquits him.

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This is happening all over the Nation. Time to disarm cops. Tasers, and non lethal only. Better psychological screening. Apparently they only hire scaredy cats because they surely fear for their lives too easily. The jury represents the Arizona community poorly.
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99percenter said:

This DOJ probably wouldn't do such a thing. Obama tried to deal with this issue and people accused him of race baiting. This just isn't a race issue.

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I’ve seen two videos of “double tap” shootings of persons that may not have been armed. Why shoot them so many times? There is training that exists where dangerous dogs on leashes are able to “attack” a subject hooked up to measuring equipment to detect early stages of panic.

There is too much “threshold” training* and not enough analysis.

*”If the perp does X, you can kill him, no questions asked”.

Disarm cops? No ****ing way!

It seems clearer and clearer to me that many US police forces and officers in America are acting like they are an occupying military force rather than a civilian constabulary when they interact with members of the public. Military-grade weapons, military-style tactical training and rapid recourse to instant escalation up to lethal force levels are being practiced rather than civilian techniques like using communication, de-escalation and community policing methods.

If the police continue to act like an occupying force and routinely use military methods to deal with all policing situations which they encounter, then more civilians will die needlessly and eventually the public will mobilize to protect themselves from such abuse, both politically and by means of using direct counter-force. American policing methods like those on display in this video show a pathological dimension to the training and methods used by some police forces in America and are excellent examples of how not to train police and conduct police policy for the rest of the sane world.

The video brings the following points to light:

- the officer was way too aggressive with suspects who were doing everything they could to comply and cooperate with the officer's demands/instructions.
- the officer escalated the situation repeatedly and unnecessarily and thus he induced panic in the male suspect.
- the officer issued contradictory instructions which the male suspect could not have possibly followed and would not allow the suspects to speak and ask for clarification of the officer's demands.
- the officer was over armed with an assault rifle set to semi-automatic fire and discharged too many rounds into the male suspect.

Bad policing policy and in my mind either manslaughter or negligent homicide resulted from the pathological policing methods used at the scene of this shooting. This was a hotel hallway and not the streets of Fallujah, but Fallujah is coming to America if the police don't reform their policy and methods when dealing with suspects and the general public.

A very bad state of affairs is gripping police institutions in America and things have to change now.

Lamentations.
Evilroddy.

Well the jury made its decision. Seems most do not like it or understand how they came to the conclusion they did. imo, the tipping point was the training officer who stated the defendant followed his training. Along with an officer who stated faced with the same situation, he would have fired.

Much like I cannot understand how a jury found a Mexican National illegally in the US who shot Kathryn Stein to death was found not guilty.

I understand there are bad LEO's out there and should not be. There are far more LEO who do good things for the public than bad ones. Wonder how many here that are so critical have been a LEO or would be willing to be an LEO. Bet not many.

I will state I have not been an LEO. I have worked with some during fire investigations and fire related accidents investigations. Pretty interesting to here some of the incidents that an LEO can be involved in. It is interesting to see that there is not much outrage when an LEO gets shot by someone. Just saying.

digsbe said:

This is unacceptable, the guy was legit crying and begging for his life and posed no risk to the officer.

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yep, if i were a judge the cop and perhaps the guy giving orders would be guilty of at least reckless homicide and in a WD case they both would be individually liable along with their employer

mike2810 said:

Well the jury made its decision. Seems most do not like it or understand how they came to the conclusion they did. imo, the tipping point was the training officer who stated the defendant followed his training. Along with an officer who stated faced with the same situation, he would have fired.

Much like I cannot understand how a jury found a Mexican National illegally in the US who shot Kathryn Stein to death was found not guilty.

I understand there are bad LEO's out there and should not be. There are far more LEO who do good things for the public than bad ones. Wonder how many here that are so critical have been a LEO or would be willing to be an LEO. Bet not many.

I will state I have not been an LEO. I have worked with some during fire investigations and fire related accidents investigations. Pretty interesting to here some of the incidents that an LEO can be involved in. It is interesting to see that there is not much outrage when an LEO gets shot by someone. Just saying.

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He came out of his room with his wife. He was clearly terrified, crying, begging not to be shot, in part because a guy with an AR-15 pointed at him was screaming commands at him that didn't make any sense and were contradictory, but screaming if he didn't follow these completely confusing commands he was be killed, and the LEO sounded like he was completely out of his f'ing mind. I just can't see any possible way someone can look at that video and conclude that the cop handled that anywhere in the same universe as correctly and was justified in killing that guy.

And IMO if those other officers said they'd have done the same thing, that they are trained to handle situations like that, and that's a common reaction from cops, we're totally screwed and what we're approaching is a police state.

JasperL said:

He came out of his room with his wife. He was clearly terrified, crying, begging not to be shot, in part because a guy with an AR-15 pointed at him was screaming commands at him that didn't make any sense and were contradictory, but screaming if he didn't follow these completely confusing commands he was be killed, and the LEO sounded like he was completely out of his f'ing mind. I just can't see any possible way someone can look at that video and conclude that the cop handled that anywhere in the same universe as correctly and was justified in killing that guy.

And IMO if those other officers said they'd have done the same thing, that they are trained to handle situations like that, and that's a common reaction from cops, we're totally screwed and what we're approaching is a police state.

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its scary living in a society with cops like that. its more worrisome than armed criminals.

I wonder if a civilian shot someone in panic, would he get a free pass like a cop.

99percenter said:

I wonder if a civilian shot someone in panic, would he get a free pass like a cop.

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That's a point that needs National Attention. It needs to be asked throughout the Country. If it were you, me, or Grandma, it'd be murder and we'd be in the slammer.
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chuckiechan said:

I’m beginning to think that every police shooting should be reviewed by the DoJ. The officer had the drop on him and had tactical advantage and he still shot him 5 times giving him zero chance of survival. I don’t know what they are teaching these punks but a “shaking in his boots” police officer is a dangerous thing indeed.

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They say to put in extra shots just in case, to save your life. But im pretty sure that it has evolved into an unspoken overkill so they cant sue you after they are dead. Part of the "If you have to shoot at someone shoot them at least 3 times" training has evolved into less lawsuits for the city. Because you dont want a crying man who was only shot once talking to the jury.

I guarentee you this cop wasnt scared. He's just been taught its ok to kill someone that is reaching for their waistband even though 99% of his instinct told him this guy wasnt a threat. Hes been taught that his life is 500 times more important than the lowlifes he cops and he believes it.

JasperL said:

He came out of his room with his wife. He was clearly terrified, crying, begging not to be shot, in part because a guy with an AR-15 pointed at him was screaming commands at him that didn't make any sense and were contradictory, but screaming if he didn't follow these completely confusing commands he was be killed, and the LEO sounded like he was completely out of his f'ing mind. I just can't see any possible way someone can look at that video and conclude that the cop handled that anywhere in the same universe as correctly and was justified in killing that guy.

And IMO if those other officers said they'd have done the same thing, that they are trained to handle situations like that, and that's a common reaction from cops, we're totally screwed and what we're approaching is a police state.

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In general, what is your opinion of LEO's? Do your really believe the US is approaching a "police state"?

mike2810 said:

In general, what is your opinion of LEO's? Do your really believe the US is approaching a "police state"?

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1) I respect them. There are some assholes and idiots in the LEO ranks like there are in ANY job, but overwhelmingly as a group I see them as decent people doing a damn hard job dealing with the dregs of our society on a daily basis.

2) If the LEO community actually, really sees that situation as correctly handled and that killing justified, then yes, absolutely. That was murder.

3) Why are you diverting discussion from the incident to other issues?

Every time this happens, I am reminded of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. When the teen was shot 16 times, several while on the ground. The officer said he lunged at him with a knife. There were 3 other LEO present. They all backed his story. Then a year later the video comes out and that was not what happened. The cop just suddenly lost it and emptied his gun and I think was reloading when another officer stopped him. So problem one is the officer who should not have been on the force. Problem two is what the hell kind of training are they getting. And problem three and I think, the worst problem is other officers covering it up. We are left wondering exactly where would they draw the line? How far over the line would they go? How far over it have they gone in the past?

Once upon a time, the motto was "to protect and serve". Now, the unspoken motto is "officer safety #1". Officer Safety is the new pagan god of LE, the focus of training. Emphasis is laid on split-second decisions to shoot with the alternative being to die.

Then add in the cops who have been assassinated in the past couple years, and you have a recipe for institutional paranoia, instilled through training, reinforced by the us vs them mindset and exacerbated by the hate of groups like BLM... and you have cops thinking they're IN a war zone.


Now... I watched the video. The guy made a motion exactly like a right-handed man reaching for a handgun. There was no gun... speculation is he was trying to pull up his pants.

I can believe that. Under stress we can do things we shouldn't out of unconscious reactions.


Given his training, and the mindset of LE in the current day, the officer acted in accord with what he'd been taught.

Did he act "correctly"? Well in an absolute sense obviously not... the guy was unarmed and meant no harm. OTOH in a "potential combat" situation someone making that motion is threatening, it does indeed look exactly like reaching for a gun.

The cop was scared. The call said 'gun out a window'... He had incomplete information, wasn't sure what he was dealing with. People can be crying and begging and then suddenly try to kill you... it's like that IRL.

OTOH he was TOO scared... you can hear it in his voice.


I'm kind of torn. On the one hand I can see why he shot after the reaching-for-gun motion. On the other, we know AFTER the fact there was no gun.

Would I have done the same? Hard to say. My time in LE was twenty years ago, and if memory serves I don't think we were quite so quick to shoot back then. OTOH I don't think people were *quite* so quick to shoot at us either.

Considering the totality of the circumstances, I'd like to believe I would not have shot until I saw a gun. Then again, in the modern day officers are commonly trained that hesitation is death.


So what's the answer? Things being the way they are, I don't know that there is one, short of tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding the way we do LE from the ground up.


Was this officer guilty of murder? A jury said no. Would an armed citizen have gotten off? Probably not. That's kind of a problem.


Only other thing I have to say is, I'm sorry this guy got killed.

trblmkr said:

Every time this happens, I am reminded of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. When the teen was shot 16 times, several while on the ground. The officer said he lunged at him with a knife. There were 3 other LEO present. They all backed his story. Then a year later the video comes out and that was not what happened. The cop just suddenly lost it and emptied his gun and I think was reloading when another officer stopped him. So problem one is the officer who should not have been on the force. Problem two is what the hell kind of training are they getting. And problem three and I think, the worst problem is other officers covering it up. We are left wondering exactly where would they draw the line? How far over the line would they go? How far over it have they gone in the past?

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Ive seen it happen in the workplace before and it basically comes down to people are lazy or cowards. They see someone covering up a wrong and they are either too scared to challenge them or too lazy to care. They dont wanna be the one who tips over the ox-cart. They just want their paycheck and for everything to go back to normal.

Goshin said:

Once upon a time, the motto was "to protect and serve". Now, the unspoken motto is "officer safety #1". Officer Safety is the new pagan god of LE, the focus of training. Emphasis is laid on split-second decisions to shoot with the alternative being to die.

Then add in the cops who have been assassinated in the past couple years, and you have a recipe for institutional paranoia, instilled through training, reinforced by the us vs them mindset and exacerbated by the hate of groups like BLM... and you have cops thinking they're IN a war zone.


Now... I watched the video. The guy made a motion exactly like a right-handed man reaching for a handgun. There was no gun... speculation is he was trying to pull up his pants.

I can believe that. Under stress we can do things we shouldn't out of unconscious reactions.


Given his training, and the mindset of LE in the current day, the officer acted in accord with what he'd been taught.

Did he act "correctly"? Well in an absolute sense obviously not... the guy was unarmed and meant no harm. OTOH in a "potential combat" situation someone making that motion is threatening, it does indeed look exactly like reaching for a gun.

The cop was scared. The call said 'gun out a window'... you KNOW he was thinking about the Vegas shooter. He had incomplete information, wasn't sure what he was dealing with. People can be crying and begging and then suddenly try to kill you... it's like that IRL.

OTOH he was TOO scared... you can hear it in his voice.


I'm kind of torn. On the one hand I can see why he shot after the reaching-for-gun motion. On the other, we know AFTER the fact there was no gun.

Would I have done the same? Hard to say. My time in LE was twenty years ago, and if memory serves I don't think we were quite so quick to shoot back then. OTOH I don't think people were *quite* so quick to shoot at us either.

Considering the totality of the circumstances, I'd like to believe I would not have shot until I saw a gun. Then again, in the modern day officers are commonly trained that hesitation is death.


So what's the answer? Things being the way they are, I don't know that there is one, short of tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding the way we do LE from the ground up.


Was this officer guilty of murder? A jury said no. Would an armed citizen have gotten off? Probably not. That's kind of a problem.


Only other thing I have to say is, I'm sorry this guy got killed.

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That (bolded above) assertion is quite a stretch since it had not yet happened.

DiAnna said:

Outrageous. I can't believe he was acquitted. Despicable conduct by that officer.

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If he was acquitted, I have to assume that either A) the jury saw something else that we haven't, and that was pretty major; or B) they weren't allowed to see that video.

Solely off the video... I've seen 19 year olds handle hardened al-Qa'ida murderers who had killed their friends with less fear and more professionalism. WTF.

dirtpoorchris said:

Ive seen it happen in the workplace before and it basically comes down to people are lazy or cowards. They see someone covering up a wrong and they are either too scared to challenge them or too lazy to care. They dont wanna be the one who tips over the ox-cart. They just want their paycheck and for everything to go back to normal.

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I' sorry. I can't see an equivalency between overlooking workplace violations and criminal behavior in regards to law enforcement. Especially when a death is involved.
I do agree about the workplace though. Sometimes, coming forward can be harmful to your health and or employment. At one place I worked, a long time supervisor who was stealing from the company was seen and reported to management. He was not fired or demoted and the guy who reported him has so harassed he eventually left and sued. In another one, a guy reported time clock violations to HR and HR wrote the violator up but told him who ratted him out.

ttwtt78640 said:

That (bolded above) assertion is quite a stretch since it had not yet happened.

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Oh. This was before that. My bad. Need more coffee.



Anyway my point being he wasn't sure what he was dealing with, just that he had "possible armed threat" in his mind.