See why Centennial neighbors have reason to be concerned about violence outside the Dream On Saloon strip club …
Police are, once again, called about a deadly shooting along SE Stark Street, outside this strip club.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Three months to the day from the last time – on January 15 – shots again rang out in the parking lot of the Dream On Saloon, at 15920 SE Stark Street. The man bleeding on the nearby later died at a hospital.
Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers were dispatched there at 2:33 a.m. They called for backup officers to come, after finding an injured adult man who had been shot by a private security guard, reportedly while attempting a robbery.
Through the night, and into the following day, the PPB Mobile Command Unit stays at the scene of the shooting.
An officer and detective look over this Ford Taurus SEI, soon to be towed and impounded as evidence.
Officers learned that two men had approached the security guard in the parking lot and a disturbance ensued; the security guard shot one of them, then both ran off to the south, toward a nearby red Pontiac Grand Am parked on SE 160th Avenue.
Members of the PPB’s Homicide Detective and Forensic Evidence Divisions were soon on scene to assist with the investigation.
The security guard, later identified in court documents as Francisco Swafford, surrendered his firearm – it was seized as evidence – and cooperated with investigators.
Officials say that 42-year-old Eugene Pharr Jr., possibly involved in a robbery attempt, died a result of a gunshot wound. DMV photo provided to PPB
The other man involved in the incident, 49-year-old Henry L. McCollum was arrested, and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) at 9:23 a.m. that morning on charges of Robbery I, Robbery II, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon.
Facing two felony charges is 49-year-old Henry l. McCollum. MCDC booking photo
At his arraignment that day, Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office attorneys asserted that McCollum had a gun, threatened and robbed the security guard, and plotted with another person to steal from the security guard. That second individual, alleged to have participated in the incident, was not named in the court documents.
McCollum is being held at MCDC, on the two felony counts on which he was booked, in lieu of $255,000 combined bail.
© 2019 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™