Police investigating suspicious death of homeless man after body was discovered in parking of Strip Mall

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A small memorial in Pinedale has been set up where the body of a homeless man was found Friday morning.

"Right now it's a suspicious death. We're not saying it's a homicide," said Lt. Joe Gomez.

Police were called out to the area at around 7 a.m. to reports of a dead body. When they arrived they found the man in a sleeping bag behind the Little Cesar's just off of Blackstone Avenue.

"The information we're getting--the man is a transient from the neighborhood. He was intoxicated last night and got in a fight with another person," said Lt. Gomez.

Police say the 51-year-old appeared to have suffered some sort of trauma to his upper body, but are not saying if that was the cause of death.

"He does drink a lot he's a well-known transient and he does use heroin so there's that possibility too that he could have overdosed," said Lt. Gomez.

Friends in the area say the man went by the nickname Beast. They say he had a large cut on his head and was acting strange Thursday.

"Yesterday he was disrespecting everybody. We've known him to get drunk and act a fool...but never like he was yesterday...he was totally out of it he knew something was going to happen like he knew his days were short."

Anyone with information is asked to call Fresno Police in Pinedale.