Witness Says Unarmed Man Fatally Shot By Mesa Police Officer Begged For His Life

RSS Feed

Witness Says Unarmed Man Fatally Shot By Mesa Police Officer Begged For His Life

November 4th, 2017

Awake Goy

Daniel Shaver cried for his life before a Mesa police officer shot and killed him, a woman who met Shaver about half an hour before his death testified Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Monique Portillo, 35, testified in the trial of former Mesa Officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford, whom prosecutors accuse of unjustifiably shooting Shaver.

Brailsford, 26, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the on-duty shooting on Jan. 18, 2016, at a Mesa La Quinta Inn, where Shaver was staying.

Portillo, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, told the jury she heard Shaver say, “Don’t shoot me,” before Brailsford fired.

“He was just crying for his life,” Portillo said.

Police had responded to the hotel for a call about a person pointing a gun outside of a fifth-floor window. A couple inside a hotel hot tub told staff that they saw a silhouette with a gun pointed toward a nearby highway.

Police later found that Shaver, 26, was unarmed when he was shot but had a pellet gun inside his room, which he kept with him as part of his job as a pest-control worker.

Brailsford has said he shot Shaver because he thought Shaver had been reaching for a gun when he made a movement with his right hand toward his waist, according to court records.

Portillo and Luis Nuñez were in Mesa on a work-related trip that day from New Mexico. After dinner, they were on their way to their fifth-floor room at the hotel when they bumped into Shaver, who was standing outside his room holding a bottle of Bacardi rum and a PlayStation game console controller, Portillo said.

Nuñez began to talk to Shaver, who invited the two into his room for a shot of rum, Portillo said. Once inside, Portillo asked if Shaver played a musical instrument because she noticed a large case, she said.

If you haven’t already, be sure to like our Filming Cops Page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Please visit our sister site Smokers ONLY

<!–

(function(d) {
var params =
{
id: “3c7936d6-71e2-4cba-afb4-95ed4171941f”,
d: “ZmlsbWluZ2NvcHMuY29t”,
wid: “365543”,
cb: (new Date()).getTime()
};

var qs=[];
for(var key in params) qs.push(key+’=’+encodeURIComponent(params[key]));
var s = d.createElement(‘script’);s.type=’text/javascript’;s.async=true;
var p = ‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https’ : ‘http’;
s.src = p + “://api.content-ad.net/Scripts/widget2.aspx?” + qs.join(‘&’);
d.getElementById(“contentad365543”).appendChild(s);
})(document);
–>