Shooting of Daniel Shaver

On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver, a 26-year-old pest control specialist from Granbury, Texas, was fatally shot by Mesa, Arizona police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel. Shaver, who was in Mesa on a business trip, had invited two acquaintances, Monique Portillo and Luis Nuñez, to his room, where he showed them a scoped air rifle he used for pest control work. When the gun was seen pointed out of his fifth-floor window, hotel staff called police.

Six officers, led by Sergeant Charles Langley, responded around 9:20 p.m. and issued commands for the room's occupants to exit. Shaver and Portillo complied and were subjected to an extended sequence of instructions in the corridor while officers, including Brailsford, aimed rifles at them. Shaver, lying prone and later ordered to crawl toward officers, briefly moved his hand toward his waistband — an act his widow's account and other reporting suggest may have been an attempt to keep his shorts from slipping. Brailsford opened fire with his AR-15, striking Shaver five times and killing him. The rifle Shaver had shown his guests was later confirmed to be a pellet gun. An autopsy found Shaver was intoxicated, which police said may have contributed to his confusion in following commands.

Body camera footage of the shooting was initially sealed by court order at the request of both prosecutors and defense attorneys, over objections from Shaver's widow, Laney Sweet, who sought its release. A partially redacted version was released in May 2016, omitting the shooting itself; the full footage was released by the Mesa Police Department only after Brailsford's acquittal.

In March 2016, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office charged Brailsford with second-degree murder, and he was subsequently fired by the Mesa Police Department, which cited policy violations including an inscription on his rifle and prior use-of-force concerns. After a six-week trial, a jury acquitted Brailsford of all charges on December 7, 2017. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice reopened the case to examine possible civil rights violations.

Following his firing, Brailsford filed for bankruptcy in January 2018. In August 2018, the Mesa Police Department reinstated him briefly in a "budget position," which allowed him to apply for and receive an accidental disability medical retirement and a pension of $2,500 per month — a resolution not publicly disclosed until July 2019.

In 2021, Shaver's parents settled a civil claim against the City of Mesa for $1.5 million. Laney Sweet, who had sought $75 million in a wrongful death suit, settled her claim against the city for $8 million in November 2022.