3,295 pages of records reveal disorganization and lack of coherent command structure in March 2018 standoff with police that left armed 19-year-old dead
Sprawled out in the trunk of his friend’s black Honda Civic on Capp Street between 21st and 22nd, Jesus Adolfo Delgado Duarte was making the decision of his life.
It was March 2018, and a semi-circle of 10 San Francisco police officers had formed with their guns drawn. Delgado had a gun of his own. He held the lid of the trunk with his right hand while fidgeting with the silver handgun gun with his left. Abre la cajuela, said a policewoman through a patrol car PA system, slowly, almost pleadingly asking him to open the trunk and show his hidden left hand. Señor, si tú no enseñas tus manos, te vamos echar balazos: If you don’t show your hands, we will shoot.
Delgado had a decision to make. He could get out of the trunk and face time in prison — and possibly be deported to Mexico, where he had been born 19 years earlier. Or he could raise his gun and die.
He looked toward Officer Milen Banegas, who was giving him commands in Spanish less than 10 feet away. “You could see all these emotions that he was experiencing,” she would tell homicide detectives days later. “At one point, it looked like he was crying.”
Delgado made the sign of the cross, she recalled. It was “as if he’s having this psychotic episode … it’s like, he was trying to decide what to do.”
All of a sudden, that decision would become easier. An officer standing behind Banegas and to her left shot Delgado with a beanbag round, hitting him in the right forearm. Many of the 10 officers who shot Delgado would tell detectives that Delgado winced, flinched, or was unresponsive. But Banegas, who was among the closest, recalled something more: Delgado’s facial expression turned to “rage.”
Seconds later, Delgado suddenly extended his left hand, which held a Millenium Taurus 9mm handgun, and shot once at the phalanx of officers. One shot would be all he’d get; they fired back 99 times. Twenty-five bullets hit Delgado. He was killed on the spot.
The barrage of gunfire was heard throughout the neighborhood. Delgado became the Mission District’s first and only officer-involved shooting of 2018. Protests ensued. A town hall meeting at Cesar Chavez Elementary a week later would feature Banegas’s body-worn camera footage along with that of other officers. The footage showed Delgado, who was suspected of robbing a man at gunpoint minutes before the incident, clearly firing at officers first.
But more than 3,200 pages detailing an ongoing investigation of the case — including statements from more than a dozen officers present for the shooting — reveal a more complicated story: a precarious crisis situation that testimony illustrates was likely escalated by how the SFPD handled it.
Instead of buying time and keeping its distance, which is the department’s policy, officers formed a semi-circle only around 15 feet from the trunk where Delgado was holed up. This contravened the SFPD’s use-of-force policy to “utilize cover to avoid creating an immediate threat that may require the use of force.”
Interview transcripts with all of the officers on the scene indicate that, instead of creating time and distance between themselves and Delgado, the SFPD’s response was disorganized and without a commanding officer in charge. That meant individual officers independently made singular decisions that either enflamed or stabilized the tense scene.
At the moment Delgado was holed up in the trunk, two years and four months had passed since five officers fatally shot Mario Woods in December 2015, striking him some 21 times, in an interaction that lasted just over a minute. That situation was also marked by disorganization and impatience. A year later, the department changed the way it dealt with use of force, encouraging officers to de-escalate tense situations with people who may be in crisis.
That did not happen with Delgado.
In six minutes, the standoff was brought to an abrupt conclusion by the decision of one officer, Bryan Santana, to deploy what the SFPD calls an “extended-range impact weapon,” or less-lethal shotgun that fires beanbag rounds. Santana told investigators that discussing his tactical decision with officers on the scene would have been “counter-productive.”
And that decision to use the less-lethal gun without any discussion curtailed the efforts of another officer, Banegas, who had been attempting to reason with Delgado. She was perhaps the only officer that recognized he was having an emotional crisis, but there was no communication between her and other officers. The six-minute scene ended before a supervising officer could arrive to coordinate the cops on scene and devise a plan.
On top of everything else, a woman who some officers believed to be harmless, one of Delgado’s friends, was not removed from the car during the encounter — which culminated in a hail of bullets.
“It felt really fast,” Banegas told investigators when they suggested she had been talking to Delgado for “a long time.”
“It didn’t feel that long at all,” she said.
Delgado’s mother, Maria, attributed the speed at which the incident took place to bias. “I feel like my son’s worst sin was being Latino,” she said. “That’s probably why they didn’t give him an opportunity.”
According to multiple video angles of the scene, Delgado fired the first bullet and this is what the police command staff stressed during the town hall meeting a week after the incident. But he was not the first to act aggressively. He shot his gun only after being hit with the less-lethal round — and it’s unclear if he even knew what hit him since officers never, as policy dictates, warned him that they were firing a beanbag round, only that they would “shoot.”
Three separate investigations by the District Attorney, SFPD and the Department of Police Accountability are ongoing.
Delgado’s friend since the fifth grade, Victor Navarro-Flores, followed officers’ commands, exiting the car with hands raised early in the encounter. As he was being handcuffed near the driver’s side of his Honda before the shooting, Navarro told investigators Delgado said to him: “Dude, I’m sorry for putting you through this, but I’m not going back to jail and I’m not getting deported.”
Delgado was born on Dec. 25, 1998, in Guadalajara, Mexico, to Jose Delgado, a wood seller, and Maria Duarte, a domestic worker. Jose arrived first in San Francisco in 1999, working odd jobs to save money. Maria followed two years later with Jesus and his two older siblings, crossing the Rio Grande on a truck tire, and eventually traversing the southern border into McAllen, Texas. They eventually found their way to meet Jose in San Francisco’s Mission District.
In a recent interview, the parents described their son as a “joyful child” who received honors throughout grade school but sometimes gravitated toward troublemakers. The young Delgado met Navarro at Aptos Middle School in Balboa Terrace, they said. Delgado eventually graduated from Life Learning Academy High School on Treasure Island in December 2016, and had his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status renewed a month later, his parents said.
“Now that he had his papers, he was thinking about getting a better job,” Maria said in Spanish through an interpreter. “Around those days, he was talking about getting a license for haircutting.”
“Dopher,” as his friends called him, had a girlfriend and also held a job at the Metro PCS store at 2380 Mission St. That’s where he was finishing a shift around 8 p.m. on March 6, 2018, hours before he found himself in the trunk of his friend’s car two blocks away on Capp Street.
A friend named “Jairo” picked up Delgado and they drove to the McDonald’s at 24th and Mission, where they were joined by Navarro and Navarro’s girlfriend, Cristina Juarez, according to Navarro’s interview with detectives and a civil lawsuit filed by Delgado’s family. Delgado consumed Xanax at the McDonalds.
Jairo broke off, but the three others continued their evening together, stopping by Muzio’s, a liquor store on 21st and South Van Ness, where they picked up Backwoods cigars and some water. By around 10:33 p.m., the three teenagers had parked on Capp Street between 21st and 22nd.
Soon after, Delgado robbed a man at gunpoint, according to victims. But the nature of the crime is disputed. The lawsuit filed by Delgado’s family alleges that Navarro asked Delgado “to do him a favor to collect a debt from two men about a block away.”
By contrast, Navarro told investigators that the robbery was Delgado’s idea.
Surveillance footage shows Navarro park the Honda Civic on Capp Street between 21st and 22nd, and Delgado leaving the car while Navarro opens the trunk and gets back into the driver’s seat. (Navarro pleaded guilty to robbery in June and was sentenced to 128-days in county jail.)
What isn’t disputed is that Navarro attempted to drive away around 10:36 p.m. after Delgado hopped in the trunk, never quite able to shut the lid. They were immediately stopped by officers who had been patrolling the area of 21st and Capp streets.
The first on the scene, Officers Stephen Cassinelli, Joshua Tupper, and Sean Cody flashed their lights from behind the three teenagers as they attempted to flee. The teenagers’ Honda stopped. The three officers initiated the standoff with Delgado with their guns drawn. Two minutes later — by 10:38 p.m. — some four other patrol cars had converged on the scene, and 10 officers had their guns pointed at the trunk where they could clearly see the supine Delgado.
Banegas, a Spanish-speaking SFPD veteran, also arrived on the scene at around 10:38 p.m.
While speaking with one of the alleged robbery victims, she heard other officers shouting at Delgado. Officers were also asking for a Spanish-speaking officer. At that point, Banegas realized she needed to break through the swirl of commands she thought may have confused the teenager in the trunk.
“That’s why I was thinking, ‘I need a PA. I need a PA,’” she told investigators.
Less than a minute later, at around 10:41 p.m., Banegas was trying to speak to Delgado through the PA of the patrol car closest to him. She told investigators that she could see the teenager’s face clearly.
“We were in close proximity,” she said in a separate interview with investigators five months after the incident. “I felt like he was the distance between you and I.”
“Show your hands — open the trunk,” she said to Delgado in Spanish. “Sir, please show your hands.”
As she tried to communicate with Delgado, Banegas said that she could see that his emotions fluctuated wildly. One moment he looked as though he wanted to cry. Then he displayed a blank stare. Although Banegas’s voice was calm and almost pleading, some of her commands might have escalated the standoff. “If you don’t show your hands, we will shoot,” she said multiple times.
Benegas told investigators that she thought Delgado’s mind was running through his options. “Cycling,” she said, relaying what she felt was going through his mind. “‘Should I give up? Should I do something [?]’”
While Banegas was speaking with Delgado, another officer also had a strategy to get a response from the teenager.
Officer Bryan Santana arrived on the scene at roughly the same time as Banegas. He saw numerous officers pointing handguns and rifles at the black Honda Civic, which was illuminated by a spotlight.
Santana, then a two-year veteran of the force and a regular foot beat officer on 24th Street, saw officers taking the car’s driver, who later turned out to be Navarro, into custody. He also saw someone in the trunk of the car.
“He wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t moving, just sitting there,” Santana told detectives the next day.
As officers continued to shout commands and Benegas had started to speak to Delgado through the PA, Santana surmised — without discussion with anyone else — that the scene “had almost become stagnant.” Enough officers were pointing their guns at Delgado. Santana thought he could contribute in another way.
“I just knew that there was so many officers that had already had lethal cover pointing towards the car,” Santana told detectives. “I wanted to provide something different and was looking around to see if anyone had a [beanbag gun], or something less lethal, or something other than a gun.”
Santana found one and readied it.
He joined the line of officers standing roughly 15 feet away from Delgado. Banegas was already speaking to Delgado through a PA.
Banegas had been asking Delgado to show his hands for one minute and nine seconds at this point. Santana surmised that this was enough time, and he decided to initiate another strategy.
Without orders from any supervising officer — there wasn’t one — and without consulting Banegas or anyone else on the scene, Santana abruptly announced he would shoot the beanbag gun and shot it.
“So, I because I wanted to see his hand [and] I didn’t want him to pull a gun out, I shot the [beanbag gun],” Santana told investigators.
Red light!”
This is the code word officers use to indicate a less-lethal weapon is being fired — and the first notice Banegas received that Santana was firing his weapon was when he shouted it.
After a mere 69 seconds of dialog from a Spanish-speaking officer, the beanbag round struck Delgado on the right forearm.
“Suddenly his facial expressed changed,” Banegas recalled. “It was rage. He was angry.”
It was clear to Banegas that once the beanbag was fired, Delgado made up his mind.
Delgado “just made his decision, like ‘no, this is what I’m gonna do’ …”
She heard him make a “warrior-like” scream. Other officers heard him scream “Fuck you!”
With the gun in his left hand, he shot once at the officers. The response was immediate.
Officer Stephen Cassinelli fired 13 times, emptying his handgun.
Officer John Ishida fired 13 times, emptying his handgun.
Officer Sean O’Rourke fired 13 times, emptying his handgun.
Officer Colby Smets, fired 13 times, emptying his handgun.
Officer Corbyn Carroll fired 13 times, emptying his handgun.
Officer Juan Gustilo fired nine times from his handgun.
Officer Loren Chiu shot nine times from his handgun.
Officer Nicholas Nagai shot six times from his handgun.
Officer Ari Smith-Russak shot four times from an AR-15 rifle.
Officer Joshua Tupper shot six times from an AR-15 rifle.
Some of the bullets ricocheted off the car and hit neighboring homes, though no residents were injured. After five continuous seconds, the firing ceased, and several officers remembered seeing the silhouette of a person pop up in the back seat of the Honda Civic. It was Cristina Juarez, the girlfriend of the driver, Navarro. Her hands were shaking, Banegas recalled. “I mean, she’s shaking.”
Juarez had been left in the back seat, along with her pitbull puppy. Some officers had known she was in the car — but they fired anyway, telling investigators that they attempted aim away from the back seat.
“I made an attempt to point my rifle in a direction that would hit the suspect without hitting the female in the car,” Officer Smith-Russak, who shot with an AR-15 rifle, told investigators. “Because at that point I did not believe that she was a threat.”
Sitting in a nearby patrol car with the window open, Navarro heard his girlfriend screaming and crying, he told investigators. “Please don’t shoot us, please don’t shoot us,” he heard her yelling.
The lawsuit filed by the Delgado family, which accuses the city of wrongfully killing Delgado and violating his Fourth Amendment rights, alleges that Juarez had been intoxicated and asleep throughout the encounter — though it’s unclear what evidence this claim is based on.
The SFPD Legal Division said it has not been able to locate a recording of Juarez’s interview with detectives, according to a June 18, 2018, letter sent to the Department of Police Accountability investigators. The interview may shed more light into Delgado’s state of mind or, at the very least, confirm how Juarez was left on the wrong end of 10 SFPD guns.
Juarez could not be reached for comment.
Navarro was nonetheless freaking out. “It was just crazy because I don’t know what he was doing, like he just didn’t want to get out of the trunk or what?” Navarro told investigators that night. “And they just opened fire on him.”
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> Soon after, Delgado robbed a man at gunpoint, according to victims. But the nature of the crime is disputed. The lawsuit filed by Delgado’s family alleges that Navarro asked Delgado “to do him a favor to collect a debt from two men about a block away.” By contrast, Navarro told investigators that the robbery was Delgado’s idea.
> “Dude, I’m sorry for putting you through this, but I’m not going back to jail and I’m not getting deported.” After a mere 69 seconds of dialog from a Spanish-speaking officer, the beanbag round struck Delgado on the right forearm. “Suddenly his facial expressed changed,” Banegas recalled. “It was rage. He was angry.” ” She heard him make a “warrior-like” scream. Other officers heard him scream “Fuck you!” With the gun in his left hand, he shot once at the officers.
A facist, gangster, and friendly debt collector. But he’s OUR facist. So let’s slather his memory with feel good vibes and sanitizing saintification. Hey, there’s a school in the Mission looking for a new name …
It would be interesting to know the amount of service time each officer had with SFPD when this occurred. I believe (?) Mission Station is a training station for new officers. If so hard to believe that there was no senior training officer immediately on scene. Seems like Officer Banegas was issuing commands and again was she the officer with most time in as compared to the other officers. Also if the others were new officers probably their first shooting situations and a superior officer should have been available and on scene to take charge
The absence of a supervising officer or any semblance of a command structure to support the patrol officers who responded to this crisis is inexcusable. Whether you are among those in this comment section who think Delgao met the end he deserved is beside the point. It is NEVER a good thing when the police resort to unleashing a volley of 99 bullets in a densely populated residential neighborhood. This is not the Wild West. The Police Department of a modern and supposedly progressive city like San Francisco should have effective management and polices in place that prevent crises like this from happening as often as they do.
Unfortunately poor Mr Delgado made some really bad decisions that night. He chose to arm himself with a gun, he chose to ride with buddies on Capp St and look for victims to rob, he chose to approach a victim, he chose to pull out a gun and demand property from others, he chose to jump into the trunk of a car, he chose to disobey the repeated orders from officers to get out of the trunk, and he then chose to shoot at the police. The cops did NOTHING wrong in this situation. The cops even fired a beanbag round at Mr Delgado when Mr Delgado was armed with a GUN. Interesting to point out that Mr Delgado’s companions, who were also in the car with him, were not harmed in any way after following the directions of the police. But yet, the cops are trigger happy? Come’pn now people. Get a grip, when was the last officer involved shooting in SF? What were the circumstances?
Tired of hearing all these sob stories of criminals who didn’t have opportunities available to them. Total BS!!! This is the land of opportunities. As a POC migrant (legal), who stood in line, did the proper applications, grew up in the Mission, and who went to public school, I can attest that there are plenty of opportunities to those who want them Growing up with gangs, living with government assistance, with a single parent, a person could steer the wrong way, the choice is yours. Mr Delgado made some wrong choices that cost him dearly. The blame is his
Very biased piece that really takes the focus out of the fact that he:
1. JUST ROBBED SOMEONE AT GUNPOINT
2. WAS LAYING IN THE TRUNK WITH SAID GUN IN HIS HAND
It s tragic story with no clear alternative endings. Clearly, Duarte was “troubled” having been in jail and taking drugs. and he was among similarly troubled associates. But he was only 19. Making wrong choices is part of growing up. He was holding a job and had graduated from HS. That shows he was making effort to apply himself and succeed in the mainstream. But he needed more help that wasn’t there. Even if he had surrendered, it wouldn’t have guaranteed him the help and guidance he needed to change the path he was on.
I’d like to know what Navarro-Flores is doing now. He surrendered, spent time in jail. Is he now on a different path? And what of the girl friends? Have they made different and better choices in their lives?
I’m sorry that he made so many bad decisions. Could he have been talked down? Maybe. But he didn’t want to go back to prison or Mexico. If you’re holding a gun during a police stop you need to drop that right away. It’s surprising that he didn’t get shot even earlier in the encounter.
I’m sorry but this article could have been written by the perp’s defense attorney,
Good article, well-written, puts you in the moment without having to dig through dry testimony documents.
Quick takes:
-This whole sequence, from robbery to initial standoff to first (non-lethal) shot fired, takes place in less than 10 minutes. Worth keeping in mind, as this was not an hour-long standoff.
-Adrenaline must have been running very high. Pulled over within minutes of a gun-involved robbery, officer safety at-risk, and based on the body cam footage, they were CLOSE.
-Poor communication across the responding officers, possibly exacerbated by the short timeframe. Hard to understand how not all of them were aware of the car occupants. Maybe would have improved if given another 10 minutes to coordinate.
-The decision to fire the non-lethal shotgun seems to be a total cowboy move. Cannot understand the thinking here, unless the intent was to completely incapacitate the suspect? I don’t know much about beanbags but this seems very unrealistic, maybe you miss or just injure the suspect. Definitely put many people (including other officers) at risk by this decision and directly instigated the shooting. This to me is the craziest part of the story.
-All the shots fired…don’t know what to think. Seems excessive, but in less than 10 minutes at less than 12 feet distance it’s hard for me to say how one could or should react.
This is just another one of ML’s biased, anti police reports that portrays the criminal as the victim.
I didn’t read it that way. I got that it was a confusing situation for all, and started with a guy pointing a gun at someone to rob them
Or could it be to collect a debt for another person as Delgado’s family alleges?
I can’t wait until we coddle every criminal out of crime and into a better life.
Great story, Julian. Excellent reporting.
More coddling of criminals by San Francisco’s progressive wing. I hope you like it, because there’s a lot more of it coming your way with the election of Chesa Boudin as district attorney.
Is shooting a guy in a trunk 99 times what we now consider “coddling”? I thought this article was about the SFPD Use of Force policy. What’s the point of a Use of Force policy if the cops don’t follow it? And who was the criminal? To the best of my knowledge, the guy in the trunk was never arrested, never tried, never convicted. Who appointed Bryan Santana, or any police officer, to be judge, jury and executioner? One hopes Boudin brings a modicum of respect, not for criminals, but for due process, government transparency and police accountability.
Hey dummy, I’m a Democrat and I wouldn’t defend this criminal in the least. This pisses me off. I’m for the real victims here.
I won’t comment on the incident itself but will acknowledge a great piece of writing by Julian Mark. Excellent work!!
I believe it fits the definition of irony that Mr. Duarte, having offered the choice of life or death to his victim, was then presented with the same choice moments later.
The police actions were incredulous. They knew there was an individual in the backseat!
A typical Sig Sauer .40 caliber handgun commonly used by the SFPD can blast thru a metal door and then slice a 2×4 almost in half.
This should have been treated as a delicate hostage standoff situation with the safety of the individual in the back seat being paramount. Time and negotiation for however long it would take.
You guys should sign up for the police force and put these sentiments into action. If you think they handled this badly, you should show our community how it’s done. We need leaders like you wearing the badge and putting your lives on the line to keep us safe. Maybe consider not carrying a gun at all to reduce the chance of situations escalating? I’m not brave enough for this type of work, but you seem like you have the cajones so jump right in. There seem to be a lot of able bodied community members at police use of force meetings but few people actually signing up to make a real difference. I imagine that its a lot easier to back seat drive this type of thing than actually do it, but you’ll be able to let us know once you’ve been on the force for awhile and had to deal with armed robbers.
The cops did not pay attention to their training.
They are trigger happy
And what of the poor victim (and likely, others on previous occasions) who was robbed at gun point by this criminal? Has Mission Local ever bothered to report on the trauma experienced by all the victims of the criminals that ML often profiles as victims of the police? This is not a guy who was just lounging in the trunk of a car minding his own business. He had just robbed someone at gunpoint. He made these decisions for his circumstances that night. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I don’t understand Are you saying you disagree with the de-escalation use of force policy? Are you saying the police who escalated the situation were acted correctly? Are you saying the policy doesn’t matter because Delgado had robbed a man? What if he had robbed someone, but not with a gun, would that make a difference? And what of Juarez. Had she been killed in a hail of bullets, would you have blamed her for hanging out with these guys?
So shoot first and ask questions later? You are in the wrong country dude.
There is no reason to kill someone for robbery. The police did not follow their own rules.
What you two progressives fail to comprehend is that Duarte put himself into this situation by choosing a life of violent crime. Your compassion would be a lot better spent on his and his cohorts’ victims.
What’s a life of violent crime? Are you just assuming he committed many violent crimes? Did you read thearticle in full?
Such a sad, sad story. The police clearly failed to work with this man and use de-escalation. They were standing too close. He felt trapped, he had a gun, he didn’t want to go to jail or be deported, he needed help. in deciding to surrender. He deserved more time. He knew he was going to die. Once the first shot went off it was over. It was not time to give up and kill him.
Joanne – are you saying that Duarte – after having fired a gun at the police – should have been “given more time”? To do what? Fire again? Kill an innocent person? Please consider the opinions you have expressed here. They are absolutely antithetical to any laws of man or religion I can think of.
No, CB, actually Joanne is saying the cops should have followed what is a fairly clear use of force policy. The cops also had a choice. ‘They could have pulled back and shielded themselves while keeping their guns trained on the trunk before the situation escalated out of control. Officer Santana chose to fire (he was not under order, he did not fear for his life, etc.) to provoke Delgado, also in clear contravention to the de-escalation policy when the cops were in complete control of the situation. Any wisdom, reason and calm that Officer Banegas was trying to establish was lost at the instant Santana opened fire.
Delgada shot first at the police. In doing so he relinquished his right NOT to be shot back at by law enforcement. What planet do you live on where the lives and safety of police and other law abiding citizens should be secondary to a drugged up, gun-toting criminal?
What planet do you live on that makes you not understand that the cops shot first?
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK ON MY DEAD FRIEND MAKE SURE YOU SPELL HIS LAST NAME RIGHT !!! ADOLFO DELGADO SAY HIS NAME !!!!! GET YOU FACTS RIGHT BEFORE SPEAKING ON SOMEONE WHO WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED BY SFPD.
“Officer Santana chose to fire… to provoke Delgado…”
Are you sure Santana’s ‘intention’ was to ‘provoke’ the suspect? You know exactly what Santana was thinking?
Or was ‘being provoked’ simply Delgado’s response?
Nothing straight forward here, but pointing a gun at someone and robbing them isn’t a good start.
Given more time in the period before the officer fired the bean bag.
You hate to see this but if you don’t want to get shot then 1) don’t rob someone at gunpoint and 2) don’t shoot at someone. Pretty simple