SandyMaloneSan Francisco, CA – Police released bodycam video footage of the fatal shooting of an illegal immigrant who shot a gun at officers in San Francisco’s Mission District on March 6 (video below).
In compliance with the city’s policy of quickly releasing all bodycam and dashcam videos from officer-involved shootings, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) released the footage of the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jesus Adolfo Delgado from 11 separate officers’ bodycams at a town hall meeting on Monday night, KTVU reported.
Delgado’s family was present at the meeting, the Mercury News reported.
The incident in question occurred at about 10:35 pm, when SFPD officers performed a felony stop on a black Honda Civic. The vehicle, and its occupants, matched the description of suspects in an armed robbery that had just occurred nearby.
Bodycam video showed that officers first ordered the driver out of the car.
The driver complied, walking backwards toward officers as instructed. He was taken into custody without incident, the video showed.
Next, officers spotted a man – later identified as Delgado – in the open trunk of the vehicle. In the video, they ordered him to show his hands multiple times, in both English and Spanish.
The man in the trunk failed to comply with police commands, and instead, continued moving around in a manner that made police believe he might be reaching for a weapon, the video showed.
When he continued moving his hands, police initially shot Delgado with a less-lethal round, the video showed.
Even after that warning shot, the man in the trunk continued reaching around.
Then he reached out of the trunk with his gun in his hand.
Delgado shot at police before being taken down in a hail of gunfire, the video showed.
The police presentation at the town hall meeting said preliminary evidence indicated that Delgado shot once at police officers.
Preliminary evidence also showed that officers had fired approximately 99 rounds back at Delgado in response, police said.
The preliminary report from the medical examiner indicated that Delgado had been struck by 25 bullets during the exchange of gunfire.
An angry crowd screamed “murderers” in Spanish at police as they watched the videos, the Mercury News reported.
Delgado died at the scene, and police recovered a handgun in the trunk of the Honda, The San Francisco Examiner reported.
Outraged protesters descended on the Mission District the day after the shooting, demanding “Justice for Adolfo Delgado.”
Their complaint: Officers shot the armed robbery suspect too many times.
“If he had a gun or not, they still should have not shot him 30 times. Once or twice is still bad, but I would have rather them shot him once or twice than 30 times,” Rocio Navarro told KGO-TV.
Several of his friends said that they believed Delgado, who entered the United States illegally from Mexico, was hiding in the trunk of the car because he feared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Susana Rojas told KGO she doesn’t know why Delgado was involved in an alleged robbery, that she believed he was hiding out of fear.
“Adolfo got scared and he was afraid of being deported, so he jumped in the trunk,” she said.
“We don’t know what happened that night. … But that wasn’t who they knew. He was good son,” Rojas told the Mercury News, speaking on behalf of the Delgado-Duarte family.
“Especially with all these ICE raids — the rumors of them coming to the Mission,” Navarro agreed.
“He worked in the Mission, so he was very scared of that,” she told Mission Local.
You can see the bodycam video of the shooting below: