A former assistant attorney general was found shot on the rocks off the Black Point fishing area in Narragansett yesterday afternoon.

Providence lawyer Stephen Lichatin III, 58, of Taber Avenue on Providence’s East Side, was in very serious condition at Rhode Island Hospital last night, according to Providence Police Chief Dean M. Esserman.

The gunshot appeared to be self-inflicted, the chief said. The gun had been recovered from the scene, he said.

The state environmental police were called to the scene by the Narragansett police at 4:48 p.m. for a person injured on the rocky shore, said Gail Mastrati, spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Management.

He was rushed to South County Hospital and then to Rhode Island Hospital last night, she said.

Narragansett police referred questions to the DEM.

Lichatin was the chief of the civil division in the attorney general’s office from 1979 to 1981, and he has served on state and city committees, including the governor’s commission to study Rhode Island insurance statutes, the Rhode Island Small Business Administration Advisory Committee, and Providence’s salary review commission.

amilkovi@projo.com