PORTLAND – A Senegalese man was charged Friday with assault in the stabbing death of a Somali man outside a downtown Portland bar.

Zachariah Abdi, 40, of Portland died several hours after he was stabbed Thursday night outside the Whits End Bar on Congress Street.

Modou Fall, a 39-year-old also from Portland, was charged before Abdi’s death with elevated aggravated assault.

Portland Deputy Police Chief Tim Burton said at a Friday afternoon press conference that police were withholding many details about the incident as their investigation continues.

But he said charges against Fall could be upgraded, possibly Friday night.

A fight between two patrons started inside the Whits End shortly before midnight Thursday, according to Burton, and others became involved. The fracas spilled into the street, as did a crowd of 30 customers, many of them intoxicated.

Burton described the scene when officers arrived as “confusing and chaotic.” Some witnesses fled the scene, while others were hostile to police, he said.

Abdi was unconscious and suffering from tremendous blood loss when he was transported to Maine Medical Center, where he died Friday morning.

Neither man allegedly involved in the stabbing had a serious police record, and both appeared to be transients, according to Burton. He said police do not know details of the relationship between Fall and Abdi.

Lt. Joseph Loughlin said police have not recovered the weapon used in the stabbing. The chaotic scene has made the investigation by 15 Portland detectives difficult, police said.