Police Investigating SF Mission District Death As Murder
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - A man who was found dead in San Francisco's Mission District on Sunday morning appears to have been murdered, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
The victim, identified by the medical examiner's office as 47-year-old Richard Sprague, was found in the 100 block of Julian Avenue, near 15th Street, around 7:45 a.m. by officers responding to a report of a man lying on the ground, police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza said.
The caller told police the man had been there since 6:30 a.m. and hadn't moved, police said.
The man, later identified as Sprague, was pronounced dead at the scene. The case is being treated as a homicide, but Esparza said it was not a stabbing, as was initially reported in the media.
The cause of death has not yet been determined.
No suspect information was available as of Tuesday morning, Esparza said.
The murder is San Francisco's eighth of 2012. Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
