PHOENIX - Opening statements for a former Mesa police officer charged with murder in the death of an unarmed man at a Mesa hotel have been delayed until Thursday.
Philip Brailsford, a former Mesa police officer, is charged with second-degree murder for the shooting and killing of Daniel Shaver.
Initially, the trial was set to begin Wednesday, but opening statements were pushed back a day over concerns about allowing the body camera video of the shooting to be shown by television cameras.
The case stems back to January of 2016, when Brailsford and other Mesa PD officers responded to a call of Shaver waving a gun out the window at a La Quinta Inn.
When officers arrived, they told him to leave his room.
Shaver was on his hands and knees saying please don't shoot me, police records show.
The reports said Shaver may have moved his hands near his waistband and that's when Brailsford fired five times, killing the man.
But an investigators ruled that Shaver may have simply been pulling up his pants. He was unarmed and the gun was later found to be a pellet gun Shaver used as part of his business.
The trial is expected to last at least 16 days.