BATON ROUGE, LA. (THECOUNT) — Melvin Watkins has been identified as the man fatally shot by a Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office deputy on Saturday night, according to reports.
Watkins, 54, was fatally shot by an East Baton Rouge deputy while attending a 95-year-old woman’s birthday party in a Highland Club neighborhood, according to neighbors. It is unclear if Watkins was an invited guest.
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According to officials, officers responded to a call of a disturbance late Saturday afternoon in the 16000 block of Highland Club Avenue, When deputies arrived, Watkins was at some point fatally struck by deputy gunfire.
Watkins was pronounced dead at the scene of gunshot injuries.
Watkins’ last public address is listed in Livingston Parish.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office declined to name the uninjured deputy who shot Watkins but said the law officer was put on paid administrative leave, reports TheAdvocate.
Louisiana State Police are investigating the shooting but hasn’t said what led up to the deadly shooting.
Neighbors say a fight broke out at an elderly woman’s birthday party after an uninvited person showed up. Police were called in to remove the person. It is unclear if Watkins was that person.
Watkin’s body was transferred to the coroner who plans to perform an autopsy on Monday.
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Geo quick facts: Baton Rouge is a city on the Mississippi River, and the capital of Louisiana. Antebellum landmarks include the castle-like Old Louisiana State Capitol, now a museum, and Magnolia Mound Plantation, with its French Creole house. LSU Rural Life Museum is a complex of refurbished buildings illustrating 18th- and 19th-century life. On the river, the USS Kidd is a retired WWII destroyer that is now a museum. Livingston Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Livingston Parish is known as one of the six Florida Parishes, a region of the State of Louisiana that was bought from Spanish Florida and created the state of Louisiana as it is known today. Louisiana is a southeastern U.S. state on the Gulf of Mexico. Its history as a melting pot of French, African, American and French-Canadian cultures is reflected in its Creole and Cajun cultures. The largest city, New Orleans, is known for its colonial-era French Quarter, raucous Mardi Gras festival, jazz music, Renaissance-style St. Louis Cathedral and wartime exhibits at the huge National WWII Museum – wikipedia.