Shooting suspect killed in Texas; victims’ families grieve

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 14, 2015

A Dallas, Texas, man sought in connection with the April 10 shootings in Southeast Portland was shot and killed by police Tuesday night in Texas.

KOIN 6 News reported that 26-year-old Colby Robinson was shot by police in DeSoto, Texas, a Dallas suburb, after a convenience store clerk recognized him.

According to police, at about 9:29 p.m. (Central Daylight Time), DeSoto police officers chased Robinson’s vehicle to an intersection near Interstate 35 in Dallas, where Robinson fled on foot to the 7000 block of Altaire Avenue. DeSoto officers confronted Robinson and shot him. Robinson died at the scene.

A woman unrelated to the incident in a vehicle about a block south of the shooting was injured by gunfire. She was taken to a local hospital and was reported to be in stable condition.

The Dallas Police Department Special Investigations Unit is investigating the shooting.

Portland police said Robinson was the suspect in the shootings that killed 41-year-old Sut-Leng Chang (known as Susie Pham), 33-year-old Dat Pham (known as Gary Pham) and wounded 35-year-old Andrew Toan Pham at a Southeast Division Street apartment.

Portland police had issued an arrest warrant for two counts of aggravated murder for Robinson.

Robinson’s shooting came just hours after the Pham family issued a statement saying that they were “grateful for the kind words” and trying to “deal with this terrible event.”

The family released the statement Tuesday, April 14, thanking the public for its support after the shooting, and asking people to pray for their family.

“We would like to thank everyone for their sympathy and prayers,” the family said in the statement released through the Portland Police Bureau. “We ask that you pray for the third victim of this crime who is still fighting for life. While we are deeply grateful for the kind words we have received, we request that the family members’ privacy be respected as we grieve for our loved ones and try to deal with this terrible event.

“Words cannot express the grief and shock that we feel at such a senseless crime. We fully support law enforcement’s efforts to locate and arrest the perpetrator. We hope that he will be swiftly brought to justice so that he cannot inflict such pain on anyone else.”

The statement was released the same day that the police bureau, in cooperation with , offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Montavilla Neighborhood double homicide.

Infant unharmed

Gary (Dat) Pham, Susie (Sut-Leng Chang) Pham and Andrew T. Pham were shot at about 10 p.m. Friday at the house in the 8500 block of Southeast Division Street. The Phams were listed as the property’s owners.

Police said Dat Pham and Sut-Leng Chang were killed in the shooting by gunshots to the head. Andrew Pham, a licensed massage therapist with an office in Southwest Portland, remains in a Portland hospital in critical condition. He and Dat Pham are brothers.

Andrew Toan Pham and Sut-Leng Chang are the parents of a 13-week-old infant that police found uninjured in the apartment and took to safety during the investigation. The child is with her grandparents.

Police said the three were involved in the medical marijuana industry, but detectives do not know if that was a factor in the shootings.

According to KOIN 6 News, a chaplain was at the scene and blood was visible on a door at the apartment building. A man working at a nearby bar said he heard about 20 gunshots coming from the apartment building across the street.

“I thought somebody was playing some game,” another witness, Stefan Kovatchev, told KOIN 6 News. “Then after a while I saw the police.”

Kovatchev told KOIN 6 News that he has lived in the area for 10 years and has never seen anything like the shooting.

Anyone with information on the shooting should call Det. Rico Beniga, 503-823-0457, rico.beniga@portlandoregon.gov; or Det. Chris Traynor, 503-823-0449, christopher.traynor@portlandoregon.gov.

KOIN 6 News and reporters Jim Redden, Caitlin Feldman and Kevin L. Harden contributed to this story.