Cold-case arrest in 2011 homicide: Portland father was shot in back after breaking up bar fight

Balloons were left near the site off Northeast 82nd Avenue where 34-year-old Leonard James "L.J." Irving was fatally shot and his 21-year-old nephew, Lamar Lovette Hill, was wounded on June 26, 2011. Nearly 12 years later, Portland police have arrested a man accused in the fatal shooting.

A 37-year-old Portland man faces murder charges in the 2011 shooting of Leonard “L.J.” Irving.

Irving, a 34-year-old father of three, was shot in the back four times outside a bar on Northeast 82nd Avenue on June 26, 2011. Irving reportedly had broken up an argument between Lamar Hill, his nephew, and another man. As he and Hill walked to their minivan across the street, Irving was shot and killed. Hill also was shot in the neck, but he survived.

Now, more than a decade later, Jawuan Marsean Polk has been arrested in the case. The Portland Police Bureau has not publicly announced the arrest, but an indictment lists Irving and Hill as the victims.

Polk has yet to be arraigned on the first-degree murder and attempted-murder charges; he’s scheduled to appear in court March 8. He has been in Multnomah County Jail since last May for another case in which he faces second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Polk’s prior felony convictions include assault, cocaine possession and delivery, and promoting prostitution.

The night Irving was killed, he’d worked until 9:30 p.m. at a produce job at WinCo Foods, and he was scheduled to report to a part-time chef’s job at the Lloyd Center’s Courtyard Marriott at 7 the next morning. But he told his girlfriend he was going to join his nephew for a birthday celebration at the now-closed Seeznin’s Sports Bar & Lounge because he believed nothing was more important than family.

Apparently neither Irving nor Hill expected the argument outside the bar to escalate into gun violence.

“They didn’t see the guy coming,” Adrienne Milan, his girlfriend of three years, told The Oregonian/OregonLive shortly after the shooting. “It really hurts that it was cold-blooded, for no reason.”

Family members described Irving as a dedicated father who saw his children — who were aged 5, 6 and 7 at the time of his death — on his days off and on weekends. They said he dreamed of working full-time as a chef.

-- Savannah Eadens; seadens@oregonian.com; 503-221-6651; @savannaheadens

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