Skip to main content
Skylar Delgado, the son of a 46-year-old man fatally shot by Portland Police Officer Zachary DeLong in Lents Park in 2021, filed a lawsuit this morning against the city in U.S. District Court in Portland.
The complaint alleges police used excessive force against his father, Robert Delgado, and that the city failed to provide adequate training.
The allegations are familiar ones. The city has been under court oversight for a decade after being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice over its use of force against people with mental illness.
“Zachary DeLong’s actions speak to Portland Police Bureau’s lengthy history of officers ignoring their training and directives and killing people, only to face no consequences for it,” the family’s attorney, Juan Chavez, said in a statement.
Police were dispatched to Lents Park in 2021 after callers reported a man quick-drawing a handgun, “like James Bond or like a cowboy.” DeLong subsequently shot and killed Delgado with an AR-15 from 90 feet away. Two other officers shot him with nonlethal weapons. It took seven minutes before Delgado was given medical treatment, the lawsuit says.
Delgado’s gun turned out to be an orange-tipped fake. A grand jury later declined to indict DeLong, and none of the responding officers was disciplined. As WW reported shortly after the killing, the response was part of a pattern in which Portland police officers responded with long guns to people reported to be armed, but who later turned out to be carrying replica weapons or nothing at all.
The lawsuit alleges that DeLong’s “immediate escalation of the encounter” amounted to negligence, and notes that he was subsequently promoted to detective.
“Defendant DeLong’s actions speak to a long history in the City of Portland of police officers ignoring their training, ignoring their directives, and facing no consequences,” the legal complaint says.
The City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.