Public Safety or Excessive Use-of-Force? Mesa Police Back In The News: One More Officer-Involved Shooting

While the Daniel Shaver killing back in January 2016 has somehow managed to drop off the radar screen while attorneys for the victim's widow-and-children and attorneys for the City of Mesa are negotiating a potential settlement approaching $100-Million dollars, there's a campaign by the Mesa City Council to make Public Safety the linchpin in a campaign can end up on the ballot in this year's General Election asking voters to approve or reject a sales tax increase.

That action item is in front of tonight's 7-member City Council to let voters and taxpayers make the decision if city officials can make the case, using slow 911 response-times to bolster their arguments,  to increase transaction sales taxes ostensibly for public safety when the data clearly says the crime rate is down.
However, in another timely report after a series of claims of use-of-excessive-force by the Mesa Police Department in the past two years, another episode from last month got the headlines over the weekend due to a very-rapid-response:     

Report: Mesa police shot unarmed man after 9-second exchange

Bree Burkitt, The Republic | azcentral.com 

Published 3:53 p.m. MT May 6, 2018 | Updated 4:27 p.m. MT May 6, 2018

"Records obtained by The Arizona Republic on Sunday indicate it took less than 10 seconds for an unarmed man's encounter with Mesa police to turn violent last month. . .

Conflicting statements

Aziz told investigators he had flagged down Brennan's car because he was afraid he was being chased by a group of men from Tucson who were going to kill him, the report said. He said the officer shot him for no reason. . . "

You can read the breaking news report from The Arizona Republic  here