{"id":687110,"date":"2026-03-28T04:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687110\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:45:20","slug":"azusa-police-investigate-death-of-man-found-inside-unlocked-patrol-vehicle-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/687110\/","title":{"rendered":"Azusa police investigate death of man found inside unlocked patrol vehicle \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A deceased man who was found in the back seat of an out-of-service patrol vehicle parked in front of the Azusa Police Department on Thursday had been released from custody earlier in the week, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The man had been released from custody earlier in the week and entered the vehicle on his own, according to a community message from Police Chief Rocky Wenrick. Authorities said he did not appear to be signaling for help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe vehicle had been left unlocked, and it should have been secured,\u201d Wenrick said. Officers are investigating why the patrol car was not locked, he added.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Azusa Police Department, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/man-found-dead-empty-police-car-azusa-police-department\/3867232\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/man-found-dead-empty-police-car-azusa-police-department\/3867232\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">man was discovered unresponsive<\/a> at around 4:50 a.m. on Thursday inside a vehicle that was slated for mandatory maintenance and not in active use by police personnel.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics were called to the scene to attempt to help the man, but he was pronounced dead just before 5 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>The patrol vehicle was awaiting maintenance, a routine procedure for the department\u2019s fleet, Wenrick noted. Out-of-service vehicles are often parked for days or weeks while awaiting equipment installation.<\/p>\n<p>Once inside, the vehicle\u2019s doors lock from the outside, preventing anyone from exiting, police said. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Azusa police said they are working with an outside investigative firm to look deeper into the incident and determine why the vehicle was not locked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No further details about the man\u2019s identity or the cause of death have been released.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said there is security camera footage.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact Detective Lieutenant Steve Sears at 626-812-3200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deceased man who was found in the back seat of an out-of-service patrol vehicle parked in front&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[260119,1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":["post-687110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-azusa","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116304984693175340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}