San Francisco

SFPD Releases New Details on Officer-Involved Shooting That Killed 19-Year-Old

Ten officers fired 99 rounds at a 19-year-old who was hiding in the trunk of a Honda Civic, allegedly armed with a gun, fatally striking him about 25 times last week in San Francisco's Mission District, police revealed Monday night at a town hall meeting.

Hundreds of Mission residents packed the auditorium of Cesar Chavez Elementary School for the meeting, including the family of Jesus Adolfo Delgado-Duarte, the victim of the officer-involved shooting that occurred March 6 around 10:35 p.m. near the corner of Capp and 21st streets.

Police released several different videos of the incident, which began when two people reported being robbed at gunpoint by the occupants of a black Honda Civic.

At least one video shows Delgado-Duarte running from the sidewalk and jumping into the trunk of a black Honda just before a patrol car arrives and pulls the Honda over, followed by several other police cars soon after.

A body-worn camera shows officers yelling several commands at the driver, identified as 19-year-old Victor Navarro Flores, to exit the vehicle before he eventually does so and is detained. Officers then yelled several commands at Delgado-Duarte, first in English and then in Spanish, as he lay in the Honda's trunk, which was ajar.

According to police, an officer fired a beanbag round at Delgado-Duarte, but a short time later Delgado-Duarte fired a gun from inside the trunk and that's when officers fired their weapons, killing him.

After the shooting, an 18-year-old woman who was still inside the car was ordered out and detained. She was apparently uninjured.

Officers later recovered a 9 mm handgun from the Honda's trunk, police said.

Police have not yet released the names of the 10 officers who fired their weapons.

In attendance at the meeting were San Francisco Police Department Chief William Scott, Major Crimes Unit Capt. Valerie Matthews, Mission District Capt. Gaetano Caltagirone and Paul Henderson, executive director of the Department of Police Accountability.

A visibly upset crowd reacted to the videos, at times shouting "murderers!" in Spanish.

Susana Rojas, a spokeswoman for Delgado-Duarte's family, said, "We don't know what happened that night. ... But that wasn't who they knew. He was good son."

Rojas described Delgado-Duarte as family-oriented man who was saving up to buy his father a car so that his father didn't have to walk because he had recently had a toe amputated from diabetes.

Delgado-Duarte had lived most of life in San Francisco, coming from Mexico with his family when he was young and attending Bryant Elementary School, Aptos Middle School and Life Learning Academy Charter School, according to Rojas.

Jim Dudley, who spent 30 years in the San Francisco Police Department and now teaches criminal justice at San Francisco State, said he believes the use of force was justified.

"That’s what officers are trained to do, is stop the threat," Dudley said. "Not to shoot to kill, but to stop the threat. And at what point do you delay and pause for a reaction to see if you did stop the threat?"

Delgado-Duarte's death is being investigated by several different agencies separately, including the Police Department's homicide detail, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, the Department of Police Accountability, the SFPD Internal Affairs Division.

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