Homeless man found dead in downtown Petaluma

Police are investigating and have not yet ruled out homicide|

Petaluma police have not yet ruled out homicide in the death of a man whose body was discovered on a downtown sidewalk Tuesday night.

The 60-year-old man was not identified pending notification of his family. His body was found by a person who called 911 at about 7:30 p.m. after seeing a man lying face down on the sidewalk in front of the parking lot of the 24-Hour Fitness near the intersection of B Street and Petaluma Boulevard, according to Petaluma police Sgt. Ed Crosby.

He said the man, who they recognized as a local transient, had a visible head injury and was transported by ambulance to Petaluma Valley Hospital, where he was declared dead.

It is not yet known how the man was injured, but police have not yet ruled out homicide or accidental death.

“We don’t know yet,” Crosby said. “But we are proceeding as if we know it’s a homicide. Our investigation will lead where it leads.”

An autopsy will be performed Friday morning, he said.

Crosby said there was no report of a fight or other disturbance near where the body was found. On Wednesday, Crosby said police had found video footage from downtown that captured some of the man’s movements before he suffered the head injury.

While he said they were still not ready to rule out homicide, there were indications that were leading investigators to the conclusion that the death might have been an accident.

“The autopsy will give us a lot more information,” Crosby said. “Until we see the results, we’re treating this the same as we were treating it last night.”

This is the eighth time this year that a person believed to be homeless was found dead outside in Petaluma and the 21st since 2010, Crosby said. During the same four-year period, Petaluma police conducted 238 death investigations overall. Tuesday night’s body is the first of the homeless deaths found on a downtown street, he said.

“It differs from the others in that it was discovered in such a public place,” he said. “Most of the other deaths were on the outskirts of town.”

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Petaluma Police Department at 778-4415.

Crosby, who heads the department’s violent crimes unit, recently conducted a review of the unattended deaths of homeless people since 2010 but discovered few similarities that linked them, except that they may have shared common afflictions associated with long term homelessness like drug and alcohol abuse, exposure and untreated medical conditions.

Among those deaths were two that were still pending autopsy results. One involved Leonard Neal Smith, 63, whose body was discovered Nov. 23 near the Foundry Wharf business park. Crosby said he received information from the coroner’s office on Tuesday indicating that Smith died of acute alcohol poisoning. Police said Smith lived in Petaluma previously, then moved to Montana but had returned to Petaluma in recent months. He had been homeless in the weeks leading up to his death.

(Contact Elizabeth M. Cosin at elizabeth.cosin@arguscourier.com)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.