22-year-old arrested after 26-year-old was fatally shot in Washington County

NEW PEKIN, Ind. (WISH) — A 26-year-old man was fatally shot early Thursday morning in southern Indiana, and authorities arrested a suspect shortly after, said a news release issued Thursday afternoon from Indiana State Police.

Officers found Juan Antonio Gutierrez, of New Pekin, unresponsive after being shot with a handgun. He died later at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Salem.

Officers from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department went to a call around 1:30 a.m. Thursday from a home in the 9000 block of Bush Road near New Pekin. That’s off State Road 335 in a rural area with homes amid forests and farmland, about a 20-minute drive southeast of the Washington County seat of Salem.

Indiana State Police detectives, along with a crime scene investigator, were called to investigate the shooting. They obtained a search warrant and collected physical evidence from the scene. Interviews were conducted with people at the home, including Philip James Hawkins, 22.

Following the preliminary investigation, Hawkins, of New Pekin, was arrested and preliminarily charged with a felony count of reckless homicide. Hawkins was being held at the Washington County jail.

An autopsy for Gutierrez was scheduled for Monday.

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