'It looks awful': Ex-officer's acquittal reignites debate over police use of force

Earlier this year, in St. Louis, a judge acquitted Officer Jason Stockley of murder.

In Cleveland, another judge acquitted Officer Alan Buford of negligent homicide.

And, on Thursday, former Mesa police Officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, who shot and killed the unarmed Daniel Shaver, became the latest officer to be acquitted of murder or manslaughter for an on-duty shooting.

The police video shows an intoxicated Shaver, 26, crawling, while crying, toward six officers in a hotel hallway as a sergeant yells commands.

At one point, Shaver, who was in Mesa on a work-related trip, says, "Please don't shoot me," as an officer warns that if he didn't follow instructions he would get shot.

Brailsford then fires at him five times.

In his trial testimony, Brailsford said it appeared that Shaver was reaching toward his waist, possibly to pull out a weapon.

Shaver's death at Brailsford's hands is another example in the continuing use-of-force debate.The police-shooting footage has gone viral, prompting nationwide outcry because a judge or jury came back with an acquittal.

"To use the words I've heard, 'This may be lawful, but it looks awful,' " said David A. Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on police use of force.

The case of Brailsford, like the other prosecutions of current or former officers, highlights the challenges prosecutors face in convincing a judge or a jury that an officer unjustifiably killed a person.

"It's very difficult to get a conviction in these cases," said Philip Stinson, a former officer and professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who studies police shootings. "Jurors never want to second-guess an officer's split-second decision."

Supreme Court case standard

The verdict indicated the jury was swayed by the defense presented by Michael Piccarreta, Brailsford's attorney.

Piccarreta's defense, as in other high-profile fatal shootings that have gone to trial, presented jurors with the question: Did Brailsford act as a reasonable officer, considering the totality of circumstances?

That standard derives from a U.S. Supreme Court Case called Graham v. Connor. In that case, the justices' decision tasked jurors in similar cases to put themselves in the shoes of an officer who makes a split-second decision to use lethal force while considering all the factors that led police to the encounter.

Piccarreta's narrative was that Brailsford acted like any reasonable officer would when he decided to fire his AR-15, considering the only information he had: Someone had pointed a rifle outside of hotel window.

Police later learned that Shaver had been playing with his pellet gun, which he used for work as a pest-control employee, and had pointed it near his hotel room window.

“When you say a reasonable officer, that means you have to put yourself in the shoes of that officer. And that causes jurors to side with the police," Harris said. "You may think that’s a good thing or may not, but that’s the reality, and that’s what the law is.”

Challenges prosecutors must overcome

In any criminal case in the U.S., prosecutors have the burden to prove a defendant committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

In case in which police officers are the accused, Stinson and Harris said prosecutors have to overcome another challenging obstacle: the preconceived notions the public has of police officers.

Stinson said that jurors will most likely believe the standard defense of an officer, which is that he or she feared for their life and had to use deadly force to protect themselves and other innocent bystanders.

"An officer can say, 'I'm sorry I had to shoot him,' and jurors are not going to second-guess that split-second decision," Stinson said.

The viral video

Unlike other cases that have prompted protests, sometimes violent, this case didn't involve a victim who was a person of color. Shaver, like Brailsford, was white.

There weren't public demonstrations soon after the shooting two years ago or protests moments after the verdict.

But unlike in some other cases, the police video went viral two years after the shooting. Key portions of the video had not been released in the early stages of the case because of a judge's order.

WHAT WE KNOW: Ex-Mesa officer's murder trial, acquittal

Brailsford's attorneys had asked two different judges that they order the entire video to be kept from the public to protect the officer's right to a fair trial. Both judges granted the request, even as local media organizations and Shaver's widow, Laney Sweet, asked for the release of the public record.

Once the video was released, three hours after the verdict, reaction was swift on social media.

Supporters of the officer and those who thought Brailsford should have been convicted have responded to the video. Some agreed with Brailsford's account that Shaver acted as if he had a gun. Others believe Brailsford should have known Shaver was extremely intoxicated and not a threat.

Shaun King, a columnist whose writing gained prominence as an advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement — which campaigns against violence and systemic racism toward black people — called the shooting "a grave injustice."

He posted the video on Twitter, bringing attention from his hundreds of thousands of followers.

The outcry, however, has stayed on social media.

In Mesa, where the shooting took place, and in downtown Phoenix, where Brailsford was acquitted, the uproar has not resulted in any public demonstrations.

But a memorial fund for Shaver, started on GoFundMe almost two years ago, has received a flood of small donations since the verdict.

Police acquitted and convicted

Even as police shootings have received heightened scrutiny nationwide, especially after video footage depicting the killings go viral, the number of officers convicted is lower than the number of officers acquitted.

Stinson said many people believe that more officers now are being prosecuted for on-duty shootings.

“That’s just not true," he said.

MONTINI: What if victim in Brailsford shooting was black?

Since 2005, 84 police officers across the nation have been charged with murder or manslaughter in connection with an on-duty shooting, according to Stinson's research.

In that time, 32 officers have been convicted and 40 have not, the research shows. The remaining cases are pending.

In 2015, 18 officers were charged with murder or manslaughter, making it the peak year for charges in the 2005-2017 time frame.

The number of fatal police shootings has been in the 900 to 1,000 range over the past four years. So far this year, the number of officers charged is four.

Stinson said laws that determine what is considered a justified shooting by a police officer haven't changed in decades. What has changed, he said, is video evidence that in some cases contradict an officer's account of a fatal shooting.

What happened at the hotel

Shaver was unarmed when he was shot in January 2016, but there was a pellet gun in his hotel room that he used as a pest-control worker.

The Granbury, Texas, man was staying at a Mesa La Quinta Inn and Suites on a work trip for his father-in-law's pest-control company.

Hotel staff had called police after a couple using the facility's hot tub reported seeing someone pointing a rifle from the window of a fifth-floor room.

That night, Shaver had been in his room drinking alcohol with two other hotel guests before the fatal confrontation.

Detective Paul Sipe led the Mesa police investigation into Brailsford's decision to shoot. Brailsford was charged by the County Attorney's Office in March 2016.

Sipe told the jury that he became suspicious of five other Mesa officers' reports on the shooting when he noticed they omitted "vital information."

They omitted the fact that Shaver had been crying and had said, "Please don't shoot."

Brailsford was the first Maricopa County officer to be criminally charged for an on-duty shooting since Richard Chrisman, who was convicted of manslaughter and assault after a fatal 2010 shooting.

'A predisposition that favors police'

Brailsford's acquittal came the same day that former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager was sentenced to 20 years in the fatal shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man running away from Slager as the officer discharged a barrage of bullets into the victim's back.

The episode was recorded on a cellphone by a bystander.

Slager's case initially ended with a deadlocked jury last year. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to a federal civil-rights charge, which resolved both the state and federal case.

The judge in the case said the shooting constituted second-degree murder and prosecutors had pushed for a punishment of life in prison for Slager.

Harris, the University of Pittsburgh law professor, said, "Most jurors come into a court with a predisposition that favors police. Not everybody, but some are told since they were a child that police are there to help them and protect them. That's a hard narrative to overcome."

READ MORE:

Stockley verdict shows how rare officer convictions are

Ex-officer testifies he was 'sad' after shooting

Detective: 'Vital' facts not in shooting reports

Ex-sergeant backs officer's decision in shooting

Mesa officer says fatally shot man was no threat

Witness recalls night he met man killed by police

Witness: Man shot by officer cried for his life