When Cherish Sawyer saw the news earlier this month that one person had been killed and two others injured in a shooting in downtown Portland she called detectives immediately. Her 29-year-old son was supposed to be hanging out with friends there.
“I called the detective and I asked, ‘Is it my son? Is it my son?’” Sawyer said. “She said the victim hadn’t been identified and asked for any identifying marks. I told her he has a broken heart tattoo under his eye, and she got really quiet.”
On Tuesday, police identified Sawyer’s son, Dominick Sawyer, as the man shot and killed June 10 downtown. The father of three young children was in his car at the intersection of Southwest Third Avenue and Harvey Milk Street, his mother said.
Officers came across the aftermath of the shooting around 1:45 a.m. while on patrol. Police said two others were shot. One victim was transported to a hospital, and the other left the scene with minor injuries, police said.
Cherish Sawyer said she woke up around 2 a.m. with a strong feeling of nausea and called it “mother’s intuition.”
She said that a friend of her son came by the house about an hour later nursing two bullet wounds. She asked him where her son was, but the man didn’t know. She could not confirm if this was one of the injured victims police mentioned.
Sawyer had last seen her son the day before the shooting.
“I saw him that morning,” she said. “I don’t even remember if I told him I loved him.”
The two had moved from Grand Junction, Colorado in 2012. On Tuesday, she is preparing to bring his body back to Colorado so friends and family could say goodbye.
“It’s what he would’ve wanted,” she said.
The victim’s mother described her son as an avid outdoorsman, loving father and friend to everyone he met. He went to school for nursing while in Colorado, but found a passion for roofing when he moved to Portland, she said.
He participated in BMX and dirt bike racing when he was younger and loved camping and hiking.
“I want people to understand he was a good kid,” she said. “Whether you knew him for one minute or his 29 years, you’d never forget him.”
Dominick Sawyer is survived by three siblings and his children. His death marked the 38th homicide in Portland so far this year, compared with 41 at this same point last year when Portland broke a record with 101.
Police have not made an arrest in the case. And Cherish Sawyer said she is seeking justice for her son, calling the level of gun violence in Portland unacceptable. The city has recorded 443 shootings as of June 1, compared with 586 by this point last year.
She said Dominick Sawyer never met his biological father, who has also died.
“He never knew his real dad, and now he’s with him,” she said. “At least I hope so.”
– Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744