PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police are investigating a suspicious death after a body was found inside a Northeast Philadelphia apartment following a fire early Friday morning.
It happened around 6 a.m. at an apartment building on Rockwell Avenue, near Cottman Avenue, in Burlhome. Residents had called 911 and reported smoke coming from a third-floor unit.
Firefighters broke down the door and extinguished a small fire in the kitchen, but they then found a body on the floor of a bedroom.
The 49-year-old man had multiple slash wounds on his body.
“He had what appeared to be cuts and lacerations to his arms and also his face and neck,” said Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. “He appeared to have trauma to his face and there was a lot of blood.”
He was pronounced dead at the scene. It is being investigated as a suspicious death.
“The body is not burned in any way, nor is there any fire damage in the bedroom where he was found,” Small added.
Police are trying to figure out what exactly happened and if anyone else was involved. The door was locked, so this did not appear to be a break-in.
Neighbor Victoria Yarn said the man was acting erratically the day before. At one point, she said he was screaming for help and seemed to be locked out of the building. Yarn said she called the police and officers tried talking to the man, but he got combative. Nothing further happened with the response.