Man suspected of shooting son-in-law in outer Southeast Portland

See what we found out about this unusual mid-morning shooting – which caused commotion in the neighborhood throughout the day …

Police vehicles line SE Bush Street near SE 119^th Avenue, as detectives and investigators look into a shooting that left one man with gunshot wounds.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
It was a peaceful, sunny Sunday morning on March 4 – until shots rang out, just before 10:00 a.m., outside a modest Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood home at the corner of SE 119^th Avenue and SE Bush Street.

Outside the police lines, a woman claiming to be related to those involved in the incident called it a “domestic dispute” and refused to comment further to East Portland News. Family members later confirmed to media that the victim was, in fact, the alleged shooter’s son-in law.

This individual, said to be related to those involved in the incident, makes her way back into the home.

Although otherwise tight-lipped at the time, police assured the folks gathering at the crime scene tape lines that the responsible gunman was known to them, and wasn’t on the loose in the neighborhood.

Area resident Robert Leonard did speak openly with the media, reporting that the victim was wounded in the shoulder, side – and head. He added that the “gut shot” caused the victim to “roll into a ball”.

The Portland Police Bureau Mobile Precinct acts as a command center, parked in front of the home where the incident occurred.

Officers at the scene said they understood that the suspected shooter had called 9-1-1 after the incident took place.

Although the identity and location of the suspected shooter was known to officials, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) criminologists and detectives spent the day carefully documenting the crime scene.

Police accuse this man, 56-year-old Edward Benjamin Franklin, of the Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood shooting. MCDC image

“Detectives have identified 36-year-old Bobby Dean Johnston as the victim in Sunday’s shooting,” PPB Public Information Officer Lt. Robert King revealed. “He is recovering at an area hospital, and has talked with Detectives.”

The suspect in the shooting, King added, was 56-year-old Edward Benjamin Franklin. “He is charged with Attempted Murder, Assault in the First Degree, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon. Franklin was booked in the Multnomah County Jail.”

Multnomah County Detention Center records shows that Franklin was arrested minutes after police arrived, at 10:10 a.m. – and he remains in custody in lieu of more than $500,000 bail.

Just why the shooting took place still remains unclear.

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