Search for robber foiled; but felon with big gun bagged

The cops didn’t catch the armed robber they were tracking down‚ but wait until you see the BIG pistol they took from a fellow they call a felon‚

Even if this isn’t the weapon used in the tavern robbery, neighbors say they feel safer knowing this big-barreled blaster‚ toted by a felon‚ is off the streets.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
A gun-toting robber holds up Cheers Tavern on SE 122nd Ave at Holgate St.; the bandit makes off with a with the watering-hole’s cash drawer on Monday afternoon, June 11.

One of Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct police officers catches sight of a vehicle roughly matching the description used by the robber at SE 92nd Ave. and Flavel St. The car careens north on SE 52nd Ave. in inner SE Portland.

Neighbors report this Acura didn’t make the corner, climbed the utility pole guy wire, and slid back down before the driver fled on foot.

“I was standing in my driveway and saw this white Acura coming [north on SE 52nd Ave.], heading right for me [westbound on SE Henderson St.],” the resident tells us. “He was going too fast to make the turn, and he drove right up the guy wire for this [utility] pole. The car slid back down, and he took off on foot.”

The driver, a male, takes off running, leaving a woman in the car. He heads west on SE Henderson St., and starts to jump the fence of a home protected by a very large, growling dog. Three houses west of SE 52nd Ave., he heads north, jumping fences, cutting through yards.

An officer, with his K-9 partner, search the area looking (and sniffing) for any evidence the fleet-footed suspect may have discarded during the chase.

The fence-hopping suspect pops out at SE 52nd and Knapp St., apparently hoping to circle back around and get to his car‚ but runs into a homeowner armed with a shovel. “I encouraged him to leave my yard,” he tells us.

Neighbors make sure this suspect doesn’t get away. They point out his direction of travel to cops who swarm the area.

The suspect continues east, crossing SE 52nd Ave., hopping yet another fence, and cuts north to SE Ogden St. where cops take him down.

While they now say it’s unlikely that 27-year-old Don Ray Livingston was the Cheers Tavern bandit‚ they did arrest him for being a “Felon in Possession of a Firearm”.

Still, a good collar
“Officers took 27-year-old Don Ray Livingston into custody,” reports Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz. “There was some [police] radio chatter that indicated he might have had some connection to the robbery, but that proved false.”

Nonetheless, Schmautz says, Livingston is charged with “Felon in Possession of a Firearm” and “Attempt to Elude”.

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