Antoine Watkins found shot to death in vacant lot in Austin, the first fatal shooting in Chicago in six days

Antoine D. Watkins, found shot to death Saturday afternoon in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side, had been missing for more than a month.

His death was the only fatal shooting reported in Chicago in the last eight days.

Officers responded at 12:23 p.m. to a call of a person lying face down in a vacant lot in the 5400 block of West Ohio, Chicago Police said.

Watkins was dead at the scene, according police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Police said he was 32, while the medical examiner’s office said he was 22. He lived about a block away from where he was found.

An autopsy Sunday found Watkins died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Area North detectives were conducting a death investigation.

The Saturday fatality broke a streak of six days in a row without a fatal shooting in the city, the longest such streak in over four years.

However, police said they are uncertain of exactly when Watkins was shot. It appeared the body had been in the lot for awhile, according to a police source.

Watkins was last seen Feb. 3 and had been reported missing Feb. 8.

If he was indeed shot more than a week before he was found, then Monday morning will mark eight days since the last fatal shooting was reported.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

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