Accused Shooter in Old Town Nightclub Homicide Is the Bar Owner’s Son

Rolando Mingledoff showed police surveillance footage, which detectives say included his son pulling the trigger.

security Security guards in Old Town. (Justin Yau)
By Aaron Mesh

The 22-year-old man who turned himself in for the fatal shooting of a patron at an Old Town nightclub is the son of the bar’s owner, records show.

Rolando L. Mingledoff Jr., of Happy Valley, faces a second-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting of JaMarie Herring Sr. at Mingle Lounge. State records show the nightclub is owned by his father, Rolando L. Mingledoff. KOIN-TV previously reported the family connection.

The Mingledoff family declined to comment through their attorney.

A probable cause affidavit filed by Multnomah County prosecutors says the senior Mingledoff gave Portland police detectives access to the Mingle Lounge video surveillance system. (The document identifies Mingledoff as Rolando Mingle, but state records show his name is Mingledoff.)

The camera footage showed Herring in an altercation at the bar. “Det. [Mike] Jones observed JaMarie Herring punch an unknown male, later identified as Defendant, and then turn his back to engage with a different individual,” writes deputy district attorney Brad Kalbaugh. “Det. Jones observed Defendant fall back into a seating area after being punched by Herring only to quickly get back on his feet and fire a handgun into Herring’s backside at close range.”

Prosecutors say the video then showed the shooter enlisting the help of a bar employee to search the floor for an object. Police believe they were looking for a bullet casing.

In surveillance footage from earlier in the evening, the detective noticed another connection between the shooter and club staff: The shooter and his friends entered Mingle Lounge without paying the $5 cover charge.

On Tuesday, criminal defense attorney Whitney Boise contacted police and said he had been retained to represent Rolando Mingledoff Jr. Police then obtained a warrant and searched Mingledoff’s home—where they found clothes that matched those of the suspect in the video, and a 9 mm handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets.

Herring’s death was the 61st homicide in Portland this year and comes amid a rise in shootings in and around reopened Old Town nightclubs. The night after Herring was killed, friends held a vigil for him outside Mingle Lounge—where gunfire wounded five men.

Related: Old Town clubs reopen amid gunfire—and ex-soldiers stationed in the street.

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