A Chicago man was fatally shot as he was streaming on Facebook Live, his family says.
Kevin Watson, 42, was in a parking lot in the 5000 block of West Madison in the South Austin on Wednesday when a vehicle approached after 6 p.m. and a person inside “produced a handgun and fired shots,” the Chicago Police Department said. The Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed that Watson was the shooting victim and died from a wound to the chest.
Watson had been sitting in his car and started a Facebook Live moments before the shooting happened. The chilling footage has since racked up over 2.5 million views.
About 11 minutes into the clip, he was seen reacting to someone passing near the front of his car.
“What’s up bro?” he said, while putting his hands up in the air. “What’s up?” he said, again visibly shaken.
Watson said “Hell no” as he scrambled out of the car, and out of the camera’s view. Someone was heard yelling outside followed by a gunshot and then the sound of a vehicle speeding away.
Shortly after, a man was heard screaming “Hey Tugg! Call the police!” and other voices were heard clamoring before police arrived.
Watson was hit in the chest and transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The shooting is under investigation and no one is in custody, police said.
Watson’s sister, Shamika Watson, said she believes he was targeted for his chain necklace that said “Tugg” — his nickname.
She told NBC News on Friday that she was with her brother just an hour before the shooting unfolded.
After they parted ways Shamika Watson ran errands then returned to Madison Street, where her brother was known to hang out. She said she noticed a lot of cars in the parking lot where he usually was found, but ended up riding past the commotion. After she got home, she started to get calls from people on Facebook telling her to return to Madison Street because something happened to her brother while he was on Facebook Live.
By the time she arrived, her brother was already in an ambulance.
“I saw red and yellow tape up and I knew automatically it wasn’t nothing good,” Shamika said.
The family gathered at Mount Sinai hospital where they spoke with homicide detectives and doctors told the family that he passed away.
“They had told us, we’re sorry, we brought him back. They said he came to them dead on arrival, but somehow they brought him back but he lost so much blood, he just went,” Shamika said.
She remembered her brother as her “best friend,” a loving father to a 7-year-old son, and part of a close-knit family.
“He was outgoing. He loved to dress, was very outspoken, definitely a good father, uncle, brother. He was loved by so many people all over the world,” she recalled.
He was well known in clubs and in the community, and he liked doing the Facebook lives to talk about his life and previously did a podcast, Shamika said.
She believes her brother was targeted by someone he knew.
“My brother trusted too many people. In the video, that was bought to my attention by a couple of friends, he even said after they shot him, he said ‘they backdoored me,’ meaning the people in his crowd did it to him,” Shamika said.
“My brother kept himself up he loved to dress, he loved to look nice and a lot of people hated on him for that,” she continued. “He had a nice car, and jewelry, so there was a lot of hate.”
She said the “Tugg” chain was off Watson’s body and was found on the ground at the scene. It was taken by police because it had blood and fingerprints on it, she said.
The family is asking for any witnesses to report what they saw to police.
“I just want the killer to be caught. Turn yourself in because we’re not going to quit. That’s our brother. We lost our mom back in ’95, our dad is sick in a nursing home, and we’re not going to stop for our brother,” Shamika said. “We’re just hoping that everybody does the right thing, because if it was their loved one laying on that ground, then they would want someone to come forward.”
