WASHINGTON: Officials in the southwestern US state of Arizona released a graphic video Friday showing an unarmed man sobbing and begging for his life moments before he was fatally shot by a police officer who was acquitted of murder.
It was the latest in a spate of killings that have prompted criminal charges against law enforcement officials.
Philip Brailsford, who shot and killed Daniel Shaver in the hallway of a hotel in January 2016, was acquitted of second-degree murder as well as reckless manslaughter by a jury on Thursday, according to USA Today.
Bodycam footage made public following the verdict showed Shaver, a married 26-year-old father of two, on his knees complying with the officers’ instructions over the course of several minutes and saying “Please don’t shoot me” and “Please don’t shoot.”
Shaver, who was inebriated, then appeared to reach to his back, possibly to pull up his shorts, before Brailsford fired five bullets at him with his AR-15 assault rifle.
Unlike several other high-profile cases in which African Americans were killed by police, both the police officer and Shaver were white.
A police report cited by local media said officers were responding to a report of a man seen holding a gun from his fifth floor hotel room.
Officers arrived at Shaver’s hotel room in the Mesa suburb of Phoenix and found him with a woman, whom his widow Laney Sweet later said was visiting with a male colleague who had stepped outside to call his wife.
Shaver was found to be unarmed at the time he was shot, but officers discovered a pellet gun in his room, which he used for his job as a pest-control worker. His hotel stay was also due to work travel.
The local police department defended Brailsford’s actions, saying he had acted in accordance with his training.
But Mark Geragos, Sweet’s lawyer, described the killing as an “execution,” according to local news outlet AZcentral. “The justice system miserably failed Daniel (Shaver) and his family,” Geragos said.
According to USA Today, the judge did not allow jurors to hear that Brailsford had etched the words “You’re Fucked” onto his service weapon because it could be prejudicial.
The verdict came the same day as former policeman Michael Slager was sentenced to 20 years for the killing of an unarmed black motorist Walter Scott — a rare conviction in a judicial system rights activists complain often allows police to operate with impunity.
US policeman acquitted of killing unarmed man who begged for his life
US policeman acquitted of killing unarmed man who begged for his life
Federal agents must limit tear gas for now at protests outside Portland ICE building, judge says
- The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists covering demonstrations at the flashpoint US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building
PORTLAND, Oregon: A judge in Oregon on Tuesday temporarily restricted federal officers from using tear gas at protests at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, just days after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.
US District Judge Michael Simon ordered federal officers not to use chemical or projectile munitions on people who pose no imminent threat of physical harm, or who are merely trespassing or refusing to disperse. Simon also limited federal officers from firing munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.”
Simon, whose temporary restraining order is in effect for 14 days, wrote that the nation “is now at a crossroads.”
“In a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated,” he wrote. “In helping our nation find its constitutional compass, an impartial and independent judiciary operating under the rule of law has a responsibility that it may not shirk.”
Ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists covering demonstrations at the flashpoint US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.
The suit names as defendants the Department of Homeland Security and its head Kristi Noem, as well as President Donald Trump. It argues that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions and excessive force is a retaliation against protesters that chills their First Amendment rights.
The Department of Homeland Security said federal officers have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.”
“DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
Courts consider question of tear gas use
Cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the administration’s immigration enforcement surge.
Last month, a federal appeals court suspended a decision that prohibited federal officers from using tear gas or pepper spray against peaceful protesters in Minnesota who aren’t obstructing law enforcement. An appeals court also halted a ruling from a federal judge in Chicago that restricted federal agents from using certain riot control weapons, such as tear gas and pepper balls, unless necessary to prevent an immediate threat. A similar lawsuit brought by the state is now before the same judge.
The Oregon complaint describes instances in which the plaintiffs — including a protester known for wearing a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists — had chemical or “less-lethal” munitions used against them.
In October, 83-year-old Vietnam War veteran Richard Eckman and his 84-year-old wife Laurie Eckman joined a peaceful march to the ICE building. Federal officers then launched chemical munitions at the crowd, hitting Laurie Eckman in the head with a pepper ball and causing her to bleed, according to the complaint. With bloody clothes and hair, she sought treatment at a hospital, which gave her instructions for caring for a concussion. A munition also hit her husband’s walker, the complaint says.
Jack Dickinson, who frequently attends protests at the ICE building in a chicken suit, has had munitions aimed at him while posing no threat, according to the complaint. Federal officers have shot munitions at his face respirator and at his back, and launched a tear-gas canister that sparked next to his leg and burned a hole in his costume, the complaint says.
Freelance journalists Hugo Rios and Mason Lake have similarly been hit with pepper balls and tear gassed while marked as press, the complaint says.
“Defendants must be enjoined from gassing, shooting, hitting and arresting peaceful Portlanders and journalists willing to document federal abuses as if they are enemy combatants,” the complaint states.
The owner and residents of the affordable housing complex across the street from the ICE building has filed a separate lawsuit, similarly seeking to restrict federal officers’ use of tear gas because its residents have been repeatedly exposed over the past year.
Local officials have also spoken out against use of chemical munitions. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson demanded ICE leave the city after federal officers used such munitions Saturday at what he described as a “peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces.”
“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night.
The protest was one of many similar demonstrations nationwide against the immigration crackdown in cities like Minneapolis, where in recent weeks federal agents killed two people, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
