Dante Jamal Watson was 21 years old when he was found stabbed inside his apartment on Monday, January 15, 2007, in the 2200 block of Fleetwood Avenue in Northeast Baltimore. He died of his wounds the next evening. The Baltimore Police Department investigated his death, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists it as a homicide.
According to a Baltimore Sun Crime Watch item published that week, Watson "was found at 11:45 a.m. at his apartment in the 2200 block of Fleetwood Ave.
in the Harford-Echodale Perring Parkway neighborhood, police said." Officers who were called to the apartment found him in the living room. The Sun reported that "he had been stabbed in the neck, and he died of his wounds Tuesday evening at Johns Hopkins Hospital." When a reporter called the apartment, "a man who answered the phone at the apartment last night declined to comment." The brief item did not describe a suspect or a motive, and no later news story about the case could be found.
His obituary, posted by the Joseph H. Brown funeral home, fills in the life behind the police report. Dante Jamal Watson was born on April 13, 1985, the son of June Watson. The obituary said he "departed this life at John Hopkins Hospital on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 10:11 P.M." and that "Dante's demise was sudden and unexpected." He lived with his maternal grandparents until he was six and then moved to Eagan, Minnesota, to live with an aunt and uncle. He attended public schools in Baltimore City and Eagan, graduated from Randallstown High School and completed two years at Morgan State University. His last job was at Obrycki's Restaurant at BWI Airport.
The obituary described him as "creative and talented" and "a gifted musician." He played tenor saxophone in school orchestras, electric guitar in a school jazz band, and bass drum in the marching bands of Randallstown High School and Morgan State University, teaching himself along the way. His family wrote that he "was a kindhearted, generous, and loving person" who "was sensitive and considerate of others," and that "he had a unique sense of humor that would throw you off guard when conversing with him." He "enjoyed fine dining and loved eating out with his family." He left behind his mother, the aunt and uncle who raised him, his grandparents, brothers and a sister.
The Sun placed the apartment in the Harford-Echodale Perring Parkway neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore, near the Perring Parkway corridor.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved. Watson, killed only two weeks into 2007, appears to be one of them.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Dante Watson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who lived in or visited the apartments along the 2200 block of Fleetwood Avenue in January 2007, or who knew who had been inside Watson's apartment that weekend, may hold the piece of information that detectives still need. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
