Portland protester left paralyzed in 2022 mass shooting died after choosing to be taken off ventilator

A woman who was shot and left paralyzed during a protest against a police-involved shooting in a Portland park in 2022 has died after choosing to be taken off a ventilator that was keeping her alive.

The woman – identified only as “Deg” – asked to be removed from the life-saving device on July 1, which resulted in her death the following day, according to The Oregonian.

She is now the second person killed in the Normandale Park shooting on February 19, 2022, in which gunman Benjamin Smith shot and killed five people at a planned protest against the police shooting death of Amir Lock.

The 32-year-old shooting victim was shot through the neck in the mass shooting, with one bullet severing her phrenic nerve, leaving her paralyzed from the shoulders down.

After three bouts of pneumonia and more than two years of limited social contact, Deg had decided to be taken off the artificial ventilation because he was still at risk of a fatal respiratory infection since the gunshot wound, the source said.

Deg was once an independent young woman and an avid traveler and hiker, but due to her injuries she was unable to survive for more than an hour without the help of others.

“She had lost so much control,” her mother told the outlet, asking that neither her name nor her daughter's full name be used to protect her privacy.

“It was her decision. I couldn't argue with her. But we miss her terribly.”

Before her death, Deg reportedly threw a birthday party for herself, inviting forty of her family members and friends.

“For the first time in two and a half years, she was able to enjoy the company of her loved ones without a mask. There was no fear,” her mother said.

After Deg was disconnected from her ventilator on July 1, she died at her parents' home around noon the following day, the outlet reported.

Her death was determined to be the result of a gunshot wound to the neck.

According to the outlet, Deg's death has now been ruled a homicide.

Smith, 44, pleaded guilty in March 2023 to nine counts, including second-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder.

The convicted murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 55 years.

Smith lived across the street from Normandale Park and was said to have become increasingly “radicalized” and opposed liberal politics.

“He had been talking about wanting to do this for some time. He was angry about the mask mandate, he was angry at the damn liberals,” his roommate Kristine Christenson told Oregon Public Broadcasting a few days after the shooting.

Christenson said she had not felt safe living with him for some time before the shooting.

She claimed that Smith became angrier in the final years of the Obama administration and that his behavior then took a turn for the worse during the pandemic, she said.

“As the years went by, he got more and more radical,” Christenson told the outlet. “He got angrier and angrier… I didn't feel safe with him, especially in the last two years because of the whole COVID thing. I think that made him even angrier.”

Christenson said Smith often railed against the presence of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and other protesters in Portland and was an avid gun collector who allegedly displayed his weapons and sometimes threatened homeless people with them.

On February 19, 2022, Smith fired a .45 caliber pistol at him and was wounded in the abdomen and intestines by a man who returned fire with a rifle during his rampage.

However, according to KGW 8, Smith had already shot five people before he was incapacitated, including June Knightly.

Knightly, 60, was helping to direct traffic at the demonstration and was shot in the head at close range, where he died at the scene, the newspaper said.

It is unclear whether Smith will face new charges following Deg's death.