Toledo man, 20, dies after being found shot in car

Victim discovered unconscious in driver’s seat on N. Reynolds

Kenneth Collins, 20, of Toledo, Ohio, was found shot to death in a vehicle May 25, 2013. An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper was flagged down by a person who reported a suspicious vehicle and found Collins in the vehicle at North Reynolds and Newhard Circle.

A Toledo man was pronounced dead Saturday at a local hospital after he was found shot inside a car on North Reynolds Road and Newhart Circle in what authorities declared a homicide.

Police said Kenneth Lee Collins II, 20, of Campbell Street was found with at least one gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital.

A citizen flagged down an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper just before 2:30 a.m. Saturday regarding a vehicle stopped in the road. The trooper saw Collins unconscious in the driver’s seat.

RELATED CONTENT: The Blade 2013 Homicide Report

Police Sgt. Joe Heffernan said the trooper happened to be in the area doing Memorial Day weekend enforcement when he came upon the scene.

It appears Collins was struck at least once, but a coroner’s report will provide more information, Sergeant Heffernan said.

Police had no immediate suspects in the death, and Sergeant Heffernan said he did not know who owned the car in which Collins was found.

Collins had bench warrants issued on May 3 on charges of obstructing official business, failure to disclose information, criminal trespass, and loitering, according to Toledo Municipal Court records.

Those charges stem from incidents in August, when he allegedly ran from police responding to a weapons call and refused to disclose his personal information, and October, when he was found to be on the grounds of the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Weiler Homes despite being on an LMHA no-trespassing list.

In July, he was arrested in connection with a shooting on April 2, 2012, in the 3400 block of Maher Street in which a man was wounded. Municipal court records indicate the felonious assault charge was dismissed.

In February, 2011, he was sentenced to three years of community control after he entered a no-contest plea to burglary and was found guilty of that third-degree felony.

His death is the 12th homicide in Toledo this year, and the 13th in the metro area.