Rifle Inscription Lands Officer in Legal Hot Water
March 16, 2017
After an on-duty shooting back in January, Mesa, AZ police officer Philip Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder. After a confrontation inside a Mesa hotel room, Brailsford is said to have fired multiple shots while the victim, Daniel Shaver, was on his hands and knees. In his first court hearing on Tuesday, Brailsford pled not guilty to the charges.
The interesting piece of this story is what Mesa Police found during their investigation. According to the department, Brailsford’s personally-owned, duty-approved AR-15 sported an aftermarket dust cover which read, “You’re Fucked.” The Mesa Police Department has said that this inscription violates policy.
Shaver’s attorneys have pounced on the mostly innocuous text and are pushing the idea that it somehow means that Brailsford wanted to kill someone. Per tucsonnewsnow.com:
“Inscripted on the officer’s gun, and I hate to use profanity, but it said, “you’re f*****,”’ Laney Sweet, Daniel Shaver’s wife said.
According to several sources, the rifle’s vulgar inscription is on the inside of the rifle’s dust cover. The inscription is only visible if the dust cover is open, which happens automatically in order to eject spent rounds while the weapon is fired.
“That statement tells me this is a person who’s enthusiastic about killing people,” Marc Victor, lawyer for Sweet and her late husband, argued. “That’s what that inscription means.”
The takeaway here is that attorneys can and will look for every angle they can find to win a case. Dust covers (shown above), backplates, slides, frames, and several other gun parts are common canvasses for ballistic “artwork” like the type seen on Brailsford’s rifle. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, but if there’s a chance that you might have to use your firearm in defense of your life, it might be wise to consider this new angle.
Jeremy Mallette is co-founder of International Sportsman. An avid hunter and outdoorsman, he has spent more than a decade in the outdoor industry, from hiking and camping to silencers and hunting. His father taught him to shoot at age six, and he received his first firearm at age eight — a 1942 Colt Commando .38 special revolver. He enjoys yearly trips to Kansas for pheasant hunting, spending time with his children at the deer lease, and collecting unique firearms.
An information security professional by day and gun blogger by night, Nathan started his firearms journey at 16 years old as a collector of C&R rifles. These days, you’re likely to find him shooting something a bit more modern – and usually equipped with a suppressor – but his passion for firearms with military heritage has never waned. Over the last five years, Nathan has written about a variety of firearms topics, including Second Amendment politics and gun and gear reviews. When he isn’t shooting or writing, Nathan nerds out over computers, 3D printing, and Star Wars.