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From the very beginning, Sgt. Langley escalated tensions beyond a reasonable level. His commands were confusing and he created a stressful environment that compounded the difficulty of following said commands. MISTAKE #2. He can repeatedly be heard belittling Shaver's intelligence, telling him to "Shut the fuck up!" and telling him that he was "Going to fucking kill [him]!" When Shaver was told to cross his legs, he crossed his right leg over his left leg, prompting another outburst from Sgt. Langley, "Left leg over your RIGHT leg!" It was this stress that lead Shaver to fail Sgt. Langley's game of life-and-death hokey-pokey, costing him his life.
While Sgt. Langley may not be responsible for the tone of his voice, he can certainly be said to be responsible for his confusing commands. Lana Sweet complied with Sgt. Langley's commands but Shaver, who was at this point sobbing (after being told he was going to die multiple times), was not out of the woods yet. First he was ordered to cross his fingers behind his head, then he was ordered to put his hands in the air, then he was ordered to crawl (while kneeling). He had not seen how his girlfriend "crawled" and thus did not know he was supposed to inch forward on his knees instead of on his hands and knees. Sgt. Shaver let him slide for this, until he went to pull his pants up, which is when Philip Brailsford opened fire on Shaver, shooting him 5 times center-mass with his AR-15.
Had Sgt. Langley not breached procedure by making Shaver play SAW-Twister, he might still be alive. And that's the most egregious mistake of all. Cuffing him when he had his hands behind his head would have ended the situation almost immediately, provided Brailsford and others covered room #502. As for room #502, after the officers callously murdered Shaver, they attempted to breach room #501. Mistake #4. The funniest mistake, if it wasn't so poetically tragic
