On a chilly night in February, Joel Arevalo, 30, was outside an apartment complex in southwest Portland, waiting outside a police perimeter so he could get back into his friend’s apartment.
That’s according to his brother, who told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Joel Arevalo had sounded calm in a cell phone call. A photo taken by a resident of the complex that night shows Arevalo on the phone. Police officers and crime tape can be seen in the background.
By the end of the night, Arevalo was dead, shot by police.
Acting Sergeant Zachery Kenney and Officer Reynaldo Guevara were both named by the Portland Police Bureau as being involved in the shooting. Police were at the apartment complex responding to multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire, according to a statement. They arrived and set up a perimeter.
Few additional details have been provided about why officers perceived Arevalo as a threat or why they took aim at him.
At the time, Jacob Driscoll, who lived in the complex, told OPB he’d seen someone walking around with a gun around 6 p.m. Around 8 p.m., he said, a bullet came through his kitchen window and embedded in the wall. Driscoll later told The Oregonian/OregonLive that a photo he’d seen of Arevalo did not look like the man he’d seen with a gun earlier in the evening.
The result of the grand jury’s investigation was announced Wednesday by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office.