On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver of Granbury, Texas, was fatally shot by police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona United States. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been pointed out the window of Shaver's hotel room.
After the shooting, the rifle, which remained in the room, was determined to be a pellet gun. Following an investigation, Brailsford was charged with second-degree murder and a lesser manslaughter charge and found not guilty by a jury.
Prosecutors argued the shooting was unjustified. In March 2018, it became known that the United States Department of Justice had reopened the case and was looking into a possible civil rights violation by Brailsford. Brailsford was reinstated to the Mesa Police Department in August 2018, and then was granted retirement on medical grounds about a month later with a pension of $2,500 per month.
Brailsford's lawyer has said that Brailsford suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his shooting of Shaver and the resultant criminal trial. Side note: his father was a Sargent in the same police department which is partly why he got away with what he did.
