Otis Kinchen

Otis Kinchen was a 36-year-old Black man whose life was cut short in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the summer of 2012.

In the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, August 21, 2012, the Baton Rouge Police Department received calls reporting gunfire in the area of Convention Street. Officers were dispatched around 1:30 a.m. to investigate. When they arrived, they discovered Otis Kinchen’s body in a vacant lot located in the 1200 block of the street. He had been fatally shot.

Homicide detectives immediately launched an investigation into the killing. In the initial stages of their work, authorities had not established a motive for the attack on Kinchen, nor had they publicly identified any suspects.

A few days later, another deadly shooting occurred on nearby North 13th Street. Witnesses at that scene claimed the victim was related to Otis Kinchen, prompting police to investigate a possible connection between the two homicides. However, as of late August 2012, the murder of Otis Kinchen remained unsolved, with no suspects or motive announced by investigators.