The coroner has identified a 59-year-old man who was fatally shot in the head in Waukegan last week, in which police had initially incorrectly ruled the man died from an accidental fall.
The Waukegan Police Department and Waukegan Fire Department responded around 10:45 a.m. September 5 to the 300 block of Helmholz Avenue in Waukegan for a death investigation.
Officers found a man in his 50s who was found dead inside a home.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office said Wednesday that they identified the man as Michael Osborne, 59, of Waukegan.
A police report said the man had serious health issues and had recently been discharge from the hospital.
Officers believed Osborne had fallen and hit his head on the corner of a dresser, the report said.
The coroner’s office was notified and the man’s body was picked up by a funeral home.
A longtime friend of Osborne told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that the funeral home discovered a gunshot wound to the man’s head after taking possession of the body.
“The Waukegan police just tried to sweep it under the rug like he fell, but thank goodness the funeral home [saw] the bullet,” the woman said.
She said Osborne had been sitting on his bed when a shot was fired through the window of the room. “The cops failed to even look at the window in the room with the bullet hole.”
The woman said she and the family should have never been allowed to enter the room to say their final goodbye to his body on Tuesday because it inadvertently contaminated the crime scene after the police thought it was an accidental death.
The coroner’s office said they were notified in the afternoon on September 6 by the funeral home, which had discovered the man had an injury behind his ear.
The coroner’s office responded to the funeral home and suspected the injury was a gunshot wound.
The body was transported to the coroner’s office for an examination, which was performed Thursday morning.
The coroner’s office ruled the man died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Detectives were back at the residence the day after the death conducting an investigation.
The Waukegan Police Department has still not released any information on the homicide despite the incident occurring over a week ago.