Portland Officer-Involved Fatal Shooting Details Released By DOJ

PORTLAND, OR —It was around 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, February 10 when Portland Police officers arrived at the Broadway View Condominiums on the 900 block of Southwest Broadway Drive. There had been reports to 911 of a man with a gun.

As they arrived, a caller to 911 said that shots had been fired.

Police asked all residents to shelter in place. They set up a perimeter and started looking for the suspect.

According to a police report that day, "while the incident was being investigated, an officer involved shooting occurred. The subject of the officer involved shooting died at the scene."

The next day the police bureau released the name of the officers involved – Acting Sergeant Zachary Kenney, a 17-year veteran and Officer Reynaldo Guevara, who has been with the bureau since 2020.

On February 23, the bureau released the name of the person who had been killed – 30-year-old Joel M. Arevalo.

At that point, the bureau had still not released any information about what led to the shooting, whether Arevalo had been armed? How many shots had been fired by officers? Were the officers responding to fire?

On the 25th, an email went to a spokesman or the police bureau asking those questions, among others.

"I don't think the detectives are planning any additional updates until after Grand Jury," the spokesman wrote back.

Around the same time, a police administrative support specialist with the bureau, Tessra Bradshaw, sent a report to the state's Department of Justice, providing some more details.

State law requires law enforcement agencies around the state to file information about officer-involved shootings.

• While the report doesn't go into great depth, it does provide some more detail, including:
• Police believed that Arevalo "had fired shots at his friend;"
• Arevalo had remained in the area and was eventually pointed out to officers by someone;
• Officers said that when they told Arevalo to take his hands out of his pocket, he refused;
• Arevalo also refused other commands; and
• After he was shot, officers found a gun at his side.

The shooting happened the same night as a person in Northeast Portland opened fire on what had been a peaceful protest in Normandale Park, killing one person and wounding others before being shot himself.

At the time, police said that the shooting happened when a homeowner who appeared to have no political affiliation got into a confrontation with armed protesters. None of that turned out to be true.

Days later, when Mayor Wheeler was asked about the incident and the delay in releasing information, Wheeler replied that he would "rather we be accurate and provide good solid information with the benefit of collaboration with our law enforcement partners rather than winging it."

The mayor's office immediately responded to questions about the release of information.

A spokesman for the police bureau said that they are looking into why the state released the information before the case had gone to a grand jury, adding that some information had not been released publicly because some o the officers had other witnesses had not yet testified before the grand jury.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.