A woman left paralyzed following a shooting at a park where people had gathered to protest a police officer-involved shooting more than two years ago has died after deciding to forgo further treatment.
At the woman’s request, a medical professional unhooked the ventilator that had been keeping the 32-year-old – identified only as ‘Deg’ – alive on July 1, allowing her to die the next day.
The decision saw the Portland woman become the second person to die at the hands of Normandale Park gunman Benjamin Smith, who shot five people at the protest on February 19, 2022.
Despite dying at home nearly two-and-a-half months later, Deg’s death certificate names her cause of death as complications from a gunshot wound to the neck.
The manner of death, meanwhile, was deemed a homicide, after the victim, rendered a quadriplegic, made the choice after suffering through three bouts of pneumonia and being entirely reliant on others for even the most basic of needs.
A woman left paralyzed following a shooting at a park where people had gathered to protest has died last month after deciding to forgo further treatment. The unnamed woman’s mother, identified only as Leslie, is seen testifying in Multnomah County Circuit Court last year
The decision saw the Portland woman become the second person to die at the hands of Normandale Park gunman Benjamin Smith (pictured), who shot five people at the protest on February 19, 2022. He is currently in the midst of a life sentence
‘She had lost so much control,’ her mother, Leslie, told The Oregonian Friday, as it broke the story of the shooting’s latest victim.
‘This was something that was her decision. I couldn’t argue with her,’ the mourning mom continued, more than a year after appearing in court to give an impact statement.
‘[W]e miss her desperately.’
Back in April 2023, Leslie appeared in Multnomah County Circuit Court at Smith’s sentencing, describing how her daughter was paralyzed from the shoulders down when the right-wing mass shooter opened fire around 8pm.
At the time, she expressed gratitude for her daughter’s life some six months after she was finally able to leave a local hospital, while also providing insight as to her precarious condition.
Smith, 44, was later convicted of second-degree murder during a sentencing hearing a few weeks later.
At the time, Leslie proudly touted the victim as ‘a remarkable young woman’ and her ‘daughter.’
‘She was struck in the neck, as you know, by a bullet last year,’ she told the court.
The victims had been part of a group of traffic safety volunteers tasked with protecting marchers who convened at the park
Police responded to reports of shots fired at a street intersection near Normandale Park just after 8 pm, before demonstrators could even begin the planned march
‘And except for the lingering trauma that infuses her every moment whether awake or asleep, she cognitively remains the same – smart, strong-willed funny, and the kind person who spent the bulk of her 20s working and traveling across the globe
‘She now needs assistance in almost every aspect of her physical life – breathing included,’ Leslie continued.
Recalling the state in which she arrived by ambulance to the hospital on February 19 2022, the mother said, ‘she was frightened, vulnerable, in shock, and in critical condition, terrified of being left alone.
‘I stayed with her every day,’ she added, visibly emotional. ‘Her dad stayed with her every night.
Six months later, after a month in the ICU and a month in rehab, her daughter ‘had no voice’, with another six months needed for her just to relearn to talk, she said.
To do so, she had to time her speech to the pulse of her ventilator, after which she and her husband began the undertaking of learning how to be her caregivers.
‘We advocated for her offered her love and encouragement and eventually learned as best we could how to care for her ourselves,’ she said, asking neither her name nor her daughter’s be used for privacy purposes given the politically charged nature of the attack.
‘In our spare moments, we tackle the mountain of administrative tasks – HealthCare, disability, legal power of attorney, withdrawal from school finding and hiring contractors to make our home accessible for our daughter’s homecoming,’ she added
They were protesting to protest the police shooting of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old black man who was shot earlier that month during a search warrant. Leslie’s daughter was not a protester, her mother said
‘The financial impact on this has been significant.’
The mom-of-three went on to recall how she and her spouse spent upwards of ‘$120,000 to make our home wheelchair accessible and equipped to care for our daughter.
‘The purchase of a used but reliable van for transport was an additional $60,000,’ she stated, citing how the Oregon State Victim Compensation Fund only provided $20,000, the maximum allowance permitted.
‘It did not come close to covering actual costs, but it is helping with the cost of counseling and trauma therapy,’ she said at the time.
Leslie went on to lay out how caring for Def was an ‘Around the Clock commitment’ and how even sleep became ‘an interrupted process for all of us most nights.
‘[Deg] may need to be turned or a blanket may need to be added or removed,’ she told the court.
‘She may need to be sectioned – a mechanical procedure to clear her airway, as she isn’t able to cough.’
She further described how her daughter had been left unable to even scratch an itch on her own face, forced to ‘lie in the darkness [to be] awakened by yet another nightmare that’s left her too shaken to return to sleep.’
She also mapped out the litany of medication that had to be dispensed to keep her alive in addition to the ventilator, which could not be removed for more than an hour – or risk her dying as she did last month.
‘Over 12 medicines at five intervals during the day and evening,’ Leslie detailed at the time, adding that oftentimes even more was needed ‘if the side effects of her spinal cord injury cause[d] her blood pressure and or her body temperature to fluctuate.’
These facets, she said, required constant, round-the-clock monitoring, all to prevent her daughter’s death.
When the shooting started, the other victim who died stepped forward to block the barrel of Smith’s .45-caliber handgun, before he shot Deg and wounded four others. A protester with a rifle was able to sprint across the park to shoot Smith in the hip. The crime scene is seen here shortly thereafter
‘She needs to be turned every few hours to keep her skin healthy, [her] muscles need to be exercised a minimum of twice daily, [though] more is better,’ the mother went on at the time, before describing the dangers of respiratory infections during the treatment.
‘Being on a ventilator, our daughter can’t fight off respiratory infections to keep her lungs clear,’ she said.
‘Every visitor to our home – friends, family, health care workers, everybody, without exception – must wear a mask to help for prevent any virus even a cold from threatening our daughter’s health.’
She added how finding a professional caregiver had also become ‘an ongoing challenge’, before revealing that a combination of her family and that of fellow victims had ‘generously stepped up to assist for several hours every week.
‘Without them we would be on our own,’ she said. ‘[My husband and I] are in our late 60s, and like many, retired at the start of the pandemic due to health concerns of our own.’
The incident took place at the intersection of Northeast 55th Avenue and Northeast Hassalo Street in Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood, next to Normandale Park (pictured)
‘How long will we be able to care for our daughter and what happens when we’re no longer able to?’ she went on to ask, calling attention to the air of uncertainty surrounding her daughter’s future.
‘Above all we are grateful every day, that our daughter is with us.’
Two months later, at Smith’s sentencing, Deg managed to issue a statement as well.
She told onlookers over Zoom, while still using a ventilator: “I feel I am alive because of the sacrifice she made in that moment
‘The majority of my coping skills are no longer accessible,’ she continued, her speech still somewhat broken.
‘It has only been through intensive speech therapy that I’m able to speak today.
‘I used to love to sing and I miss the sound of my own laugh,’ she lamented. ‘I’ve lost the future I saw for myself.’
Smith, meanwhile, was present but declined to speak, as his attorney said he had unfathomable remorse for maiming Deg and three others, and the murder of 60-year-old activist June Knightly.
Knightly, along with Deg, had been part of a group of traffic safety volunteers tasked with protecting the marchers, who convened at the park to protest the police shooting of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old black man who was shot earlier that month after cops executed a no-knock search at an apartment where he was staying.
When the shooting started, Knightly stepped forward to block the barrel of Smith’s .45-caliber handgun before he shot Deg and wounded four others, before a protester with a rifle was able to sprint across the park to shoot Smith in the hip, disarming him.
Her mother on Friday went on to frame their actions as heroic, but also specified that Deg ‘was not there as a protester… [or] as a martyr.’
Smith, still saying nothing, went on to plead guilty to a single count of second-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder, before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 55 years.
Over the next year, deterred by the prospect of getting deathly ill another three times and living the rest of her life in a bed, Deg slowly arrived at the decision that saw her pass peacefully at her home surrounded by loved ones on July 2.
After deciding earlier this year, Deg told her mom, who in turn told the paper Friday how she respected her daughter’s desire.
The morning mother then recalled how before that, Deg was able to celebrate her birthday with family and friends one final time, where the family at last did not have to go through the strict procedures to keep her safe.
‘For the first time in 2½ years she was able to enjoy her loved ones without a mask. There was no fear,’ she said.
Deg died after spending months researching Oregon’s Death with Dignity program, in the home where she had grown up, Leslie revealed.
As for Smith – who lived near the park and had been previously reported to local and federal law enforcement for his threatening behavior before the shooting – he is currently in the midst of his sentence.
