As I watched the vid, I assumed the officer screaming out all the orders to Shaver was Brailsford himself. It turns out that was a different cop.
Shaver was obviously terrified of the police and the encounter, and did the best he was capable of to comply with all orders. The order to "crawl" was confusing, as the police meant that to mean shuffling forward on one's knees while having hands raised in the air, while the traditional meaning of that term means being on one's hands AND knees. Shaver dropped to his hands upon hearing the order to "crawl", which happened just before he was killed.
In a civilian context, it wouldn't be just Brailsford put on trial for murder, but both Brailsford and the officer who issued all the horrible screamed shouts and threats of death against Shaver. Both would have been put on trial. But because these were police, only Brailsford was put on trial. But Brailsford is not responsible for escalating and intimidating Shaver to the point where he could hardly think & comply. He was only responsible for pulling the trigger when he lost sight of Shaver's hand. I do believe if it was Brailsford who was screaming all the orders in addition to shooting, he would have gotten at best a hung jury, and very possibly a conviction.
In this case, two cops contributed to the killing of Shaver, but only one was put on trial, which was the fatal flaw in gaining a conviction. Shaver was obviously in complete terror of these police, because of how the police behaved, and yet they got a free pass on that point.
It is outrageous that civilians are expected to be as well trained about how to behave around cops as cops are trained to treat every person in every situation as a potential cop killer. Shaver was not trained about how to behave around the police, and because of that, he is now dead and the police are not criminally accountable.
While there was no criminal conviction, I do expect a wrongful death suit to follow for the reasons stated, and that the police (actually taxpayers) will pay out handsomely for this needless killing.
If there is a lesson from this, anyone in a similar situation should simply stay flat on the floor, spread eagle, and refuse to move even when ordered to do so. Do not rise to your knees, cross your ankles or comply with any order to move that could potentially give any cop with a gun any reason to fear for his life, because you know that you may not understand any order given, no matter how simple the order may be ("crawl" being the operative example in Shaver's case). Staying spread eagle face down without moving would do that. The only reason the cops wanted this guy to move toward them is because they suspected a shooter may be in the hotel room, and they didn't want to approach that room with him in the way. But that problem is THEIR problem, not your problem, especially when you know for a fact that they are in no danger whatsoever. YOUR problem is to keep them from shooting you, and you do that by staying down, staying spread eagle and refusing to move at all even when ordered to do so.
It is outrageous that civilians are expected to be as well trained about how to behave around cops as cops are trained to treat every person in every situation as a potential cop killer. Shaver was not trained about how to behave around the police, and because of that …
In this case, training didn’t need to be how to behave around cops…..training needed to have been on how to act intelligently and rationally so that cops never would have been called.
Somewhere along his life span, Shaver needed to have been trained that it’s a BAD idea to point a rifle out the window of a motel room with people in a swimming pool below.
But then sometimes even training doesn’t work, because:
… he is now dead and the police are not criminally accountable.
He is now dead because he acted stupidly and “suddenly moved” his hand towards his waistband after being instructed not to do so….the police were not found to be criminally accountable and therefore acquitted.
crawl krôl/Submit verb 1. (of a person) move forward on the hands and knees or by dragging the body close to the ground. "they crawled out from under the table" synonyms: creep, worm one's way, go on all fours, go on hands and knees, wriggle, slither, squirm, scrabble "they crawled under the table"
