Shooting of Daniel Shaver
2016 police murder of a white man in Mesa, Arizona, United States

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. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been pointed out of the window of Shaver's hotel room.
After the shooting, the rifle, which was previously assumed to be a lethal weapon, remained in the room and was determined to be a pellet gun. Following an investigation, Brailsford was charged with second-degree murder and a lesser manslaughter charge, found not guilty by a jury, and later re-hired by his department.
Backgrounds
Daniel Shaver
Daniel Leetin Shaver (December 29, 1989 – January 18, 2016) was a white man who grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Hillwood High School in 2007. He lived in Granbury, Texas, with his wife and two daughters. Shaver was employed as a pest control specialist, and was visiting Mesa for a business trip when he was killed. He was 26 years old.
Philip Brailsford
Philip Mitchell Brailsford was 25 years old at the time of the shooting. He had been employed with the Mesa Police Department since 2013.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shooting of Daniel Shaver” is 2016 police murder of a white man in Mesa, Arizona, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shooting, Daniel and Shaver, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “2016 police murder of a white man in Mesa, Arizona, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23926394. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2016, 1989, 2007 and 2013.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shooting of Daniel Shaver”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shooting of Daniel Shaver primary sources, Shooting of Daniel Shaver archive and Shooting research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shooting of Daniel Shaver”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shooting of Daniel Shaver” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.