Murder Most Mysterious on Mass Ave

Murder is so rare in Portland, Maine, that you can count the incidents on one hand since 2011. But two of them have been associated with separate ends of Massachusetts Avenue in 2014 and 2011.

Here are the statistics for recent years: 2000, No murders; 2001, 1; 2002, 3; 2003, 1; 2004, 2; 2005, 3; 2006; 3; 2007, 1; 2008, 4; 2009, 4; 2010, 6; 2011, 2; 2012, 1. (Source.) There was only one homicide in Portland, Maine, in 2013. (Source.)

Most murders in Portland, Maine, are the result of domestic violence, but less than 10% remain "unsolved."

A new murder in Portland is a surprise. Where it happened is, as well. The Brighton Avenue-Massachusetts Avenue-Congress Street area is a mix of apartment houses at each end, with quiet single-family homes, lined with maple trees and comfortable little front and back yards, in between. This is near the University of Southern Maine, and where students, immigrants, professors, and ex-professors live. The site of these murders is where I live, and a shock for the neighborhood. (It was just a "coincidence" that I wrote about redrum/murder earlier on the same day.)

But are we discovering, at least, for murder mysteries of 2011 and 2014, this one area is a focus?

Here's what we know about the murder last night, Friday, November 21, 2014.

Portland police say a man was shot and killed by another man who fled the scene of the apparent homicide in an apartment on Brighton Avenue on Friday night.
Police found one man dead when they were called to an apartment at 214 Brighton Ave. shortly after 9 p.m. to respond to a report that shots had been fired.
The man believed to have committed the killing fled, but police didn’t know whether he got in a vehicle or ran. They did say that the suspected shooter was no longer thought to be in the area late Friday night, and that no one had been taken into custody.
Police did not release the identity of the victim.
Brighton Avenue was closed between Douglass Street and Massachusetts Avenue while police investigated the killing. They expected the street to remain closed for some time.
The shooting occurred in the Princeton Village Apartments, a large complex next to the train tracks that run through the neighborhood. (Read more.)

The time was also given in another report:

Portland police are investigating a homicide at 214 Brighton Ave. Officers arrived an apartment around 9:05 p.m. Friday and found one man dead. (Read more.)

Saturday evening, the victim was identified as Richard Lobor, 23, of Portland. Source.

Lobor was a guest in an apartment at 214 Brighton Avenue, where the fatal shooting took place. Source.

On Facebook, "Rich Lobor" (pictured) is profiled:

Works at Seeds of Peace

Studied at Southern Maine Community College

Past: Portland High School

Lives in Juba, South Sudan

From Cairo, Egypt

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In 2011, an unsolved murder happened at the opposite end of Massachusetts Avenue.

Portland police investigate a fatal shooting that happened early Monday, August 1, 2011, outside 4-6 Massachusetts Ave. Police were called to the Mobil gas station at 1196 Congress St., in the background, and found a 41-year-old man lying on the sidewalk in front of the station. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald photographer

Portland police search an alley outside 4-6 Massachussetts Ave., where a man apparently was shot early Monday. The shooting is the first homicide of this year in Portland. John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald photographer

The victim, identified as Allen MacLean, apparently was shot at 4:30 am behind the three-story apartment building at 4-6 Massachusetts Ave., and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of a Mobil gas station and convenience store at 1196 Congress St.

The case is still listed as unsolved, as the Portland Police department's only "cold case homicide" for 2011. (See here.)