A death at Burning Man on Saturday night is being investigated as a homicide after a man was found in a pool of blood at a camp in Black Rock City, during the ritual burning of the Man.

The Pershing County Sheriff's Office announced Sunday that they had found a deceased man Saturday night around 9:14 pm, just as the annual burning of the Man effigy began on the playa. According to a release, an individual flagged down a sheriff's deputy and pointed them to a camp where a male was found in a pool of blood, per the Chronicle.

"Pershing County Sheriff Office deputies and the Bureau of Land Management immediately responded to the campsite and found a single white adult male lying on the ground, obviously deceased," the release states.

The case is being investigated as a homicide, and those attending Burning Man are being asked not to interfere with the investigation.

"Although this act appears to be a singular crime, all participants should always be vigilant of their surroundings and acquaintances," the sheriff's office said. "This process is still ongoing and the portion of the 'City' where this occurred will have heavy law enforcement presence until the scene can be released."

Officials with the Burning Man organization also encouraged Burners not to interfere with the investigation, adding, "The safety and well-being of our community are paramount."

While accidental deaths have occurred on the playa with some regularity over the years, a homicide is an unusual occurrence. The death of a New Zealand man in 2019 was initially deemed suspicious, but was later determined to have been caused by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. Similarly, a death that was under investigation after the 2023 Burn was deemed the result of drugs — specifically acute poisoning from cocaine, alcohol, and ecstasy/molly.

On the night of the Burn, 41-year-old Aaron Joel Mitchell, likely under the influence of substances, ran into the flames to his death in 2017.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop

San Francisco police are investigating after a man was fatally shot on Saturday night near the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Police responded to the scene in the Mission Bay neighborhood around 10:00 p.m., per KRON4. Upon arrival, at the intersection of Terry A Francois Boulevard and 16th Street, officers discovered a man suffering from a gunshot wound. They administered medical aid and called paramedics to the scene.

Despite life-saving efforts, the victim was unable to recover and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No other information about the victim has been released publicly at this time.

ABC7 reported that witnesses said a vehicle might have been involved, possibly a drive-by.

SFPD is asking anyone with information to come forward. They can contact the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 575-4444 or choose to text a tip to TIP41.

Feature image via Unsplash/Kyle Fritz.

A death has been reported at the rain-soaked Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert amid the shelter-in-place.

The Pershing County Sheriff's Office confirmed the death investigation, but details regarding the victim and the circumstances remain undisclosed, according to KGO. They reportedly confirmed that the family has been notified, and it's an ongoing investigation.

The mud has apparently made it challenging for vehicles to traverse the area, as this deluge, which brought 2 to 3 months' worth of rain in just 24 hours, left the festival grounds submerged in ankle-deep mud.

Organizers also urged against driving because of road conditions, and said only some vehicles with 4WD and all-terrain tires are able to navigate the mud, so it seems the majority of the tens of thousands of people at the festival are still stuck. They also have been deploying mobile cell trailers, configuring Wi-Fi for public access, and arranging buses to transport people to nearby Gerlach and Reno.

It’s unclear when the roads will be passable — Burning Man organizers estimated that “Monday late in the day would be possible if weather conditions are in our favor” in a Saturday night statement. Organizers of the festival also delayed the ceremonial burning of the Man Saturday, hoping that the weather behaves Sunday and the Burn can take place Sunday night.

Portions of Interstate 15 on Saturday along the California-Nevada border which is a major artery for Vegas-bound travelers were closed due to the heavy rains as well, as the LA Times reported.

2News reported that the Washoe County Sheriff's Office is assisting with traffic, as hundreds of people are starting to leave the Burning Man festival Sunday morning (including Diplo and Chris Rock).

This death wouldn’t be the first time that someone died at the festival — previous reports include Shane Billingham, 33, in 2019, of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, and Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, who tragically ran into the fire as the Man burned in 2017.

Feature image via iStock/Getty Images Plus/DOSerCreative.

A San Francisco woman who was out jogging in Golden Gate Park on Saturday evening was reportedly struck by a falling tree branch and died, KRON4 reported.

San Francisco police reportedly responded to a 911 call at 5:15 p.m. Saturday and found the unresponsive jogger, according to KTVU. The 70-year-old woman was near John F. Kennedy Drive and 30th Avenue, near Lindley Meadow in Golden Gate Park, and she was found on the ground next to a large branch.

Emergency services attempted to render life-saving medical treatment, but the victim reportedly could not be resuscitated.

“Unfortunately this valued community member did not survive,” San Francisco Fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter told the Chronicle

She was declared dead at the scene, authorities said.

Her identity has not been publicly released, but officials said she was a San Francisco resident. More details about the death have not been provided, and it’s unclear if the tree branch fell due to the inclement weather this weekend.

Image via Flickr/Alan Cleaver.

San Francisco's recent heat wave is now San Francisco's deadly heat wave, officials said Wednesday, tracing the demise of three residents to the city's record-breaking temperatures. Add to that a release Thursday from the San Mateo County Coroner saying that three more people died there as a result of the heat — and the death toll may rise as more reports come in from other counties.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office announced that three elderly people died due to “probable” heat-related causes this weekend, the Ex reports.

All three were born in the 1920s or 1930s, lived alone, and died at home, the ME's office says.

None of the deaths were preceded by calls to 911, putting to rest worries that any of the dead were among the 28 life-threatening calls made over a weekend so short on EMTs that fire engine crews had to wait 20 minutes or more for an ambulance to arrive.

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault told the Chronicle that we can add to that list Patrick Henry of Pacifica, 90; Ernesto Demesa of Daly City, 79; and Loraine Christiansen of Millbrae, 95. Demesa and Henry both lived in homes without air conditioning, Demesa alone and Henry with his wife. Christiansen lived in an assisted living facility.

As noted by NBC Bay Area, "People of advanced ages living independently are the most vulnerable in extreme conditions," saying that the ME's office recommends "well checks and frequent contact to ensure friends, family, and neighbors are healthy and not in need of assistance."

When contacted by the Chron regarding the deaths, Department of Public Health spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said “We will look deeply into these incidents and see what we can learn about improving outreach to elderly and vulnerable populations."

On Tuesday, Supervisors London Breed, Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim called for a hearing on the city's preparation for the heat wave, which the Chron described as "sluggish."

“It is deeply concerning that in a city with San Francisco’s resources, at least three preventable deaths happened as a result of the heat wave — and many more people were affected in non-fatal ways,” Peskin says.

“We will be asking the tough questions to make sure San Francisco is not caught flat-footed again."

And well he should: As previously reported, climate scientists are suggesting that the recent heat wave could be the first of many, as continued climate change makes for conditions leading to extreme temperatures like last weekend's.

"It makes more sense to ask whether global warming made an event more likely," UCLA climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain says. "And in the case of an unprecedented extreme heat wave, the answer these days is usually yes."

Related: Record-Breaking Heat Could Be Ongoing Trend For SF Bay Area
ABC 7 Weatherman Drew Tuma Collapsed From Heat Exhaustion During Heatwave

*This post has been updated throughout.

#DEVELOPING Local musician Dave Deporis may have died trying to save his music...killed after chasing thief who stole laptop. #Abc7now pic.twitter.com/znby3bymco

— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) August 10, 2017

Well known musician Dave Deporis, 40, died Wednesday afternoon from injuries he suffered following a robbery in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood in which he tried to chase down the thief. ABC 7 reports that Deporis was working on his laptop at an outdoor table at a cafe on the 4200 block of Telegraph Avenue yesterday afternoon when a thief snatched his laptop and jumped into a waiting car, reportedly a red Audi. Deporis then gave chase, trying to retrieve his laptop, and caught up to the car on Rich Street. The car then dragged him some distance, leading to traumatic injuries.

As the East Bay Times reports, Deporis was found by police on the 400 block of Rich Street around 12:35 p.m. Wednesday, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Oakland police are offering up to $15,000 for information leading to an arrest in Deporis's killing. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 510-238-3821, or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.

Below, a video from 2005 of Deporis performing "The Adult Song" in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

After a man's body was discovered early Monday morning in San Francisco, police have confirmed that they believe the death was a homicide.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the body of a man was discovered at 5:43 a.m. Monday on the 1600 block of Alemany Boulevard, which is between Santa Rosa and San Juan Avenues.

Bay City News reports that police were alerted to the situation by a caller who said there was "someone outside near the street possibly needing help." When police arrived, they found the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say that the "Medical Examiner [is] determining Cause/Manner of Death," and did not provide any additional details on the scene. Tuesday morning, the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office identified the man as 43-year-old Ricardo Trimor.

Should this death prove to be a homicide, it will be San Francisco's 29th for the year, following the beating death of 33-year-old Australian tourist Matthew Bate on Friday, June 2.

According to the SFPD, no suspect information is available, nor have any arrests been made in this week's case. They ask that anyone with information on the death call SFPD's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message at TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message.

A teenaged girl from a small Minnesota town was killed this week when she fell while hiking on a popular Lake Tahoe trail.

14-year-old Chloe Conn of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, was killed Wednesday after falling "50 feet after slipping from a rocky outcropping," the Sacramento Bee reports.

Sheriff’s deputy Damian Frisby, the office’s search and rescue coordinator, said that the girl was with her mother, father and 17-year-old brother when the accident occurred.

“She got into a spot that gradually steepened,” Frisby said. “It became almost vertical. She lost her footing and fell about 50-plus feet.”

The fall occurred on an outcropping about 75 yards from a parking lot along Highway 89. From the parking lot, thousands of people every year take a safe, wide trail down the hill to the shore of Emerald Bay.

According to the Bee, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office got the call regarding the incident at 12:06 p.m. Wednesday. Though an off-duty law enforcement officer in the area "came to the girl’s aid and began CPR before emergency personnel arrived," she succumbed to her injuries at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe.

D-L Online reports that the girl was on vacation with her family, and was hiking The Vikingsholm Trail, which is reportedly "heavily trafficked" that drops 500 feet along its one mile to Vikingsholm, an historic Scandinavian-style home built in 1929.

According to a statement sent out by Detroit Lakes Middle School, at which Chloe had just completed the eighth grade:

Chloe’s mother, Stacy Conn, is a nursing assistant at Detroit Lakes Middle School. Chloe’s brother Christian will be a Senior at Detroit Lakes High School next fall. Chloe was a true Laker as she was an excellent student and beloved by all who knew her. Middle School counselors and staff are available as students, staff, and the community become aware of Chloe’s passing. During this tragic time, we ask that you please keep the Conn family in your thoughts and prayers.

A GoFundMe set up by Tim McMichael, a family friend of the Conns', has already generated $14,830. "Chloe was loved by many, she had a bright sweet smile everywhere she went. She was a great sister to her older brother Christian. She was her daddy's little girl, and her mama's best friend," McMichael writes. The funds raised by the GoFundMe, he says, will go to Chloe's parents "to help with funeral costs and medical expenses."

#032717CR1 UPDATE One victim has been rescued non life threatening injuries second victim unc not breathing in surf RESCUE IN PROGRESS pic.twitter.com/4quBabmeQ1

— San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) March 28, 2017

A man is presumed dead Tuesday morning, after both official rescuers and an imperiled good Samaritan tried and failed to pull him from the surf off San Francisco's Baker Beach.

Bay City News reports that rescue crews were called to Baker Beach at 6:50 p.m. Monday on reports of "a person screaming for help."

When crews arrived, they discovered a 22-year-old man in the water, who "said he was attempting to help another man who was stuck at rocks below the cliff."

Rescuers pulled the first man from the waves with rope. The second man, who the San Francisco Fire Department says via tweet appeared not to be breathing, remained in the water

Struggle as they might, SFFD spokesperson Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter said at a media briefing Monday that "strong surf and strong undertow conditions" kept crews from getting near the second man, and at 7:50 he was submerged from view.

According to NBC Bay Area, crews continued to search for the man in the water until 11 p.m. Monday, but were unable to find him.

The 22-year-old who was rescued did not know the second man, Baxter says, and was apparently just a good Samaritan attempting to save the victim. He was not injuried in the incident, Baxter says.

According to Baxter, tide patterns off the San Francisco coast mean it's unlikely the body will be immediately found, as remains "normally take about two weeks to emerge from the ocean, if at all." As of Tuesday morning, officials did not have any public information to provide on the identity of the deceased.

Related: High Tides Strand Early-Morning Climber On Rock Face Near Sea Cliff

I've struggled mightily, as most of us have in the Bay Area, with how to address the close of this terrible year, and the aftermath of a suicide-inducing election, and to make some sense of it that is not just a cliché-filled rant about one accidental politician who will hopefully be more comical footnote than tragic turning point for our nation. (And John Oliver, along with many celebrities, have already said their fuck yous to 2016 weeks ago.) Taken as a whole, though, this year has been punctuated by more than just campaign speeches and misleading poll numbers. It was riddled with death. Lots of it untimely, unexpected death. Say what you will, if you're feeling spiritual, about everyone having their time and going to a better place and blah blah, but 2016 has been a year of relentless, numbing waves of grief, and stupors of disbelief. It's a year awful enough and draped with sadness that hopefully it doesn't presage another one that will be much worse — because at moments, for many of us, it hasn't felt like it could get much worse, but of course it could.

It's been ten days since 36 people, most of them in their 20s and 30s, died suddenly and tragically in a warehouse fire in Oakland, during an underground music event in an unsanctioned venue that was not unlike thousands of other such events that have happened around the Bay Area over the last two decades. This is, after all, the birthplace of Burning Man and a nexus of both electronic music making and the DIY spirit, and what might have been a late-night gathering of like-minded souls in a unique space ended in disaster and mass casualty. Many of us who have gone to parties just like that over the years, maybe morbidly joking on our way in that it looked like a fire trap, felt shaken knowing it could easily have been us in there. And, indeed, many of us around the same age either directly knew one of the dead, or are separated from them by just one degree of Facebook friendship.

I've been struck by how disproportionately the fire gutted one particular niche community, with many of the early arrivers at that Friday party the close friends and electronic music peers of the performers themselves, with only one of the listed headliners that night even making it out alive. This was a community of passionate, talented friends and weirdos that is not going to recover from this loss anytime soon.

But that wasn't even the worst mass casualty event to happen in 2016. If you're good at ignoring the international news you might have missed the estimated 46,000 people who died in the Syrian civil war this year — most likely an underestimate according to most sources, with those only being the documented deaths.

Meanwhile just two days ago 38 people were killed and 155 wounded in a pair of terrorist bombings in Istanbul, one of them a suicide bombing. Another 44 were killed in a terrorist attack at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport in June, likely the work of ISIS, and two months later, in August, 54 (or more) were killed during a wedding in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. Another 300 people (or more) were killed during the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July.

In Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, 86 were killed when an apparent Tunisian terrorist, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, drove a van through crowds of revelers, injuring another 434.

Add to that the 49 people fatally gunned down at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando on June 12, most of them in their 20s and 30s, in what can only be described as a religiously motivated hate crime, and one that possibly had terrorist aspirations.

Add to that the shootings of civilians by police, many of them people of color, several of them captured on video, all over the country, with two notable and fatal shootings here in San Francisco that brought down our chief of police.

The list could go on, and I'm not even touching on natural disasters (673 dead in an April earthquake in Ecuador, 300 dead in an earthquake in Italy in August, another 300 dead in quakes in Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Tanzania, and India, 43 dead in Hurricane Matthew in October, and 14 dead in wildfires in Tennessee, 13 dead in Louisiana floods, just to name a selection).

Then there was the death of Prince, which came as a shock to many around the country, some of whom had just seen him performing live in the days and weeks before his untimely passing. His death has been linked to the consumption of counterfeit painkillers made from Fentanyl which Prince likely believed to be a different drug, perhaps Percocet, to which he'd allegedly developed an addiction over several years. Fentanyl has also been killing people on the streets of multiple American cities this year, and nearly killing hundreds more.

Alan Rickman and David Bowie, both of whom succumbed to aggressive cancers this year at the age of 69, were also surprising losses for their millions of fans, because none of them knew that either man was ill. But 69 arguably isn't an untimely death, even though modern medicine has tended to make us believe otherwise. Also, the great Sharon Jones recently succumbed to cancer at age 60, and the great Gene Wilder and Leonard Cohen each made it to the ripe old ages of 83 and 82 respectively, before giving up the ghost.

That latter group of celebrities, taken on their own, would not have necessarily made for an unusual list of "in memoriams" for one year's Oscars or Grammys, though the loss of Bowie and Prince within a few months was a double doozy for music fans — not to mention the LGBT community, for whom both were considered heroes of gender norm destruction.

But that brings me back to the unique pain of this dreadful year, in particular for minority communities in the US, of which a not insignificant number call the Bay Area home.

I and many of my friends marched through the streets of San Francisco this year to commemorate the LGBT lives lost in Orlando in June, and to protest shootings by police, and demonstrate against the election of Donald Trump, which many of us feel viscerally, like a stab to the gut — something I feel certain that the rage-filled and (arguably) racist Republican voters who voted against Obama twice did not feel in the same way after those two elections, as a personal affront, because hate directed outwards is a puny and pathetic thing compared to hate felt from without, pressing in on one's psyche from an entire swath of one's own country. Sure, you could say that most of those voters did not cast votes out of hate, but out of a short-sighted and self-serving frustration about their own economic reality, and out of an ignorance for the hateful impact that their votes, and a Trump administration's subsequent actions, would have on people like me and millions of other of their fellow Americans.

Don't even get me started on the actual, physical violence, both threatened and perpetrated, by the rage-filled maniacs of the alt-right emboldened by each others' rage and ignorance on Reddit and Twitter, and further emboldened by Trump's victory, which they sincerely believe is a victory for rage, intolerance, and for the forces that would like to turn back the clock on women's rights, LGBT rights (such as they are), and civil rights for all minorities. It is the kind of toxic crowd-thinking that fuels horrors the likes of which we haven't yet seen — but the gunman who showed up at a DC pizzeria that some conspiracy-mad corner of the internet decided was home to a Hillary Clinton-condoned child pornography ring is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg.

These all add up to a cacophony of voices of war, a chorus of faceless people — only some of whom are hateful and destructive enough to say the same things on camera — who seem, at least in theory, hellbent on creating chaos, spewing vitriol, and fomenting a culture of fear among brown people, gay people, trans people, black people, Jews, queer people, and everyone with a vagina, the most unhinged of whose ranks are more than ready to take up arms against us.

Many have been joking about a civil war between the nation's urban centers — almost all of which voted overwhelmingly for Clinton — and our rural and suburban neighbors, but the pernicious civil war of words made possible and fed by the explosion of uncensored social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit may have real-life manifestations sooner than we think. That lunatic who went to shoot up a Planned Parenthood last November, and the armed moron who showed up at Comet Ping Pong last week are not, it seems, outliers anymore — or at least that is how it feels when I read a few threads on Reddit or write something negative about Trump and someone who disagrees finds me on Twitter.

And that brings me back to the senseless deaths, both purposeful and preventable-if-accidental, that have turned 2016 into the kind of bloodbath that sends many of us into therapy, onto medications, or back to bed for indefinite periods. By most counts, these death tolls don't compare to wars, disasters, and atrocities of decades' past. Every year is a bloodbath in its own way, depending on where you look and how thoroughly you're paying attention — and the hyper-aggressive bros and old codgers who dominate the pro-Trump conversation would probably tell me I'm a whining, liberal pussy SJW (that's social justice warrior) and a cuck, and I'd better man up and arm myself, because this is the world of Thomas Hobbes and Dick Cheney, of lives that are and always have been solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Unless you're rich, heterosexual, and white, that is, and/or the CEO of a planet-raping corporation, and I'm willing to bet that most of those spewing their hate only have race in common, and sometimes sexuality, and their rage stems in part from their never being rich. Donald Trump is not going to change that for them, but we are all guilty of believing things against all logic, and hoping against hope that the next guy is going to change everything once and for all.

Last week, speaking to the surviving loved one of one of the LGBT victims of the Oakland fire, who I won't name here just out of respect, this person said, after an exhausting several days of being hounded by mainstream media outlets for comments and quotes, "Hashtag 2016. We're just a bunch of fucking queers over here. It's not like you gave a shit about us before."

I'm vowing next year not to feel scared, if that's possible, and not to go numb amidst what is sure to be a bizarre and depressing era in American politics. But what I'm left with this December is an emotional exhaustion that is only partly about political discord. It comes after too many mornings of waking up to news on my cellphone that hits me with brutish force, or news from a friend that they were brutishly punched on the street, or that someone they knew just burned alive.

Even if this is the equivalent of praying to a god, or rubbing crystals and casting runes, I'm asking whatever forces will listen to slow down with the onslaught of death. We all could use some time to breathe. And some years (like 2001, and 2003, and 2016, just to name three) are meant to be remembered with a quiet shake of a downturned head, and a sigh of relief that they are finally fucking over.

A dead body was discovered Monday in a trash can in the Dogpatch, but police say that they do not consider the death to be a homicide.

Bay City News reports that officers with the San Francisco Police Department were called to the area of 20th and Minnesota Streets, which is near Esprit Park, at around 10 p.m. Monday.

They arrived to discover the body of an adult male in a trash container behind a building, the Chron reports.

KRON 4 reports that the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office will be conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but according to SFPD spokesperson Officer Officer Grace Gatpandan, "The death is not being investigated as a homicide."

But that doesn't mean the case's status might not change in the future, SFPD spokesperson Officer Giselle Talkoff tells the Chron. “It has not been declared a homicide," she confirmed to the paper, "but that’s still under investigation.”

Related: Body Pulled From Golden Gate Park Lake

Two weeks after a man was killed in an Ocean View double shooting, the neighborhood was the site of yet another homicide, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

The SF Chronicle reports that a 68-year-old man was shot and killed at around 9 p.m. Friday on the first block of Lobos Street.

This is less than three blocks from the intersection of Plymouth Avenue and Broad Street, where on Friday October 7, two men were shot at 7:06 p.m. A man in his 50s was injured in that confrontation, police say, and a man identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office as 22-year-old San Francisco resident Keron Lamotte was killed. No arrests have been made in that case, according to the SFPD.

As of Monday morning, the ME's office had not publicly identified the victim of Friday's shooting, who was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Chronicle, police say the suspect in the slaying is a 65-year-old man, but so far no one has been arrested for the crime.

Friday's shooting appears to be San Francisco's 45th homicide for 2016, following an October 10 homicide near an elementary school. According to Bay City News, the victim in that shooting has been identified as SF resident Phillip Gaston. In comparison, there were 52 total homicides in SF at the end of 2015, 45 homicides in 2014, 48 in 2013, 68 in 2012, and 50 in 2011.

Update: The SF Examiner reports that the incident was an apparent murder/suicide following a family argument. According to Bay City News, 68-year-old Cleveland resident Dana Pierce took his own life after fatally shooting 65-year-old SF resident Woody Carson.

If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.

Previously: One Dead, Another Injured In San Francisco Double Shooting

A deceased man was pulled from the wreckage of an Oakland liquor store last night following reports that he had barricaded himself inside and set it ablaze. CBS 5 reports that the Oakland Fire Department received word Tuesday evening that a belligerent man was inside Seminary Market & Liquors on Seminary Avenue and working to set it on fire, and when they arrived on scene the building was already engulfed in flames.

NBC Bay Area reports that a 911 caller said the man was armed, and according to the East Bay Times he actually got into an altercation with store patrons. The paper informs us that he allegedly had a knife and threw liquor bottles at customers — forcing store employees to flee and call police.

Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Nick Luby told the Times that the man most likely made his way into the store's back office, and it was there that he allegedly lit the fire. It took firefighters roughly 90 minutes to get everything under control, and the man's body was later discovered in the freezer section. He is believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

The suspected arsonist's name has yet to be released pending notification of his family, and at this time there is no known motive. Seminary Market & Liquors is completely destroyed.

Related: Oakland Man Arrested For Double Shooting And Arson