Portland OR May 11 2019 A security guard was legally justified in fatally shooting a man outside a Southeast Portland strip club in January, according to a Multnomah County grand jury.

The county district attorney’s office announced Thursday that grand jurors declined to indict Francisco Swafford in the killing of Eugene Pharr Jr., 42, outside Dream On Saloon, concluding that the shooting was “a lawful act of self-defense.”

The district attorney’s office said the shooting happened sometime after Pharr and another man approached Swafford when the security guard was in his parked car in a lot near the strip club on Jan. 15. The agency has declined to provide more information on the case, citing an ongoing criminal case tied to the shooting involving the second man, identified as Henry McCollum.

McCollum, 49, remains held in the county jail on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, coercion, conspiracy to commit unlawful delivery of methamphetamine, unlawful delivery and possession of meth and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors initially alleged in court papers that McCollum, had a gun, threatened and robbed Swafford, 24, and plotted with another person to steal from the security guard. That other person wasn’t identified in the court documents.

However, an indictment filed in February accuses McCollum of threatening Swafford with a firearm and planning with another person to sell meth. The other person isn’t identified in the indictment.

According to police, witnesses reported an altercation broke out after Pharr and McCollum approached the security guard, who was armed, in the parking lot. The guard shot Pharr, who then ran away with McCollum, authorities said.

Pharr later died at a hospital.
Oregonian

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