Chicago: Antonio Perkins shot dead during Facebook live stream in suspected gang crime

A 28-year-old man was shot dead while live streaming a video of himself on Facebook, Chicago police said on 17 June. Antonio Perkins was shot in the head and neck in the North Lawndale neighbourhood on the West Side of the US city.

The video is still available on Facebook and has been watched nearly 700,000 times. The video shows Perkins and a group of people drinking and talking on a sidewalk before gunshots are heard and Perkins begins running, before the phone falls into bloody grass and goes black. Screams and cries can be heard in the background.

Chicago police believe that Perkins was a gang member. He had previously served two years in prison for making heroin and was on the Chicago police department's "strategic subjects list" of people determined to be likely targets or suspects in gang violence.

The incident took place at roughly 8.45pm on 15 June and at least 11 other people were injured during the shooting. According to the BBC, this is the second time in less than three months in Chicago that a shooting has been live streamed on Facebook.

In March, a man was shot 16 times during a live broadcast on the social media platform. The city has one of the worst gun crime rates of any American city, with nearly 500 homicides in 2015 and gun violence said to be on the rise in 2016.

A spokesperson for Facebook said that while a graphic nature warning has been added to the video, it will not be taking it down as it does not violate the company's community standards. While videos that incite violence are removed, Facebook does not believe that this live stream falls into that category.