SOUTH GLENDALE — A Glendale man was found dead Monday morning, under a woman's car as she backed out of her carport, police said.
The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was a tenant in the apartment building at 118 E. Lomita Ave., said apartment manager Laura Rovira, who was driving the car.
Rovira felt something dragging beneath her car as she backed out of the building's carport at about midnight, she said through an interpreter.
"She didn't think there was a person under there," said tenant Chrystal Ratino, Rovira's niece. "And then she got out to see what it was and she saw a pair of legs. That's when she freaked out."
It's unclear whether the car, a 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara, rolled over the body or the body was merely dragged. But when Rovira stopped the car, the man's body was partially pinned under the car's front-right wheel, Ratino said.
Police used a jack to raise the car and free the man, Ratino said.
"There are no signs of obvious foul-play, but it could have been that the subject had passed out and ended up sleeping," Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.
Rovira was taking her car out to wash it, Ratino said.
Rovira initially came out of the building late Sunday night to clean up a patch of vomit that had been reported by another tenant, Ratino said. When she had finished cleaning the mess Rovira decided to wash her niece's car and then her own, Ratino said.
She sprayed down her niece's car, which had been parked in an area accessible to the hose, and later found the body when she was backing her car out of the carport.
The cause of death is unknown, but an autopsy is underway, Balian said.
"It's not your typical, 'She backed into him and ran him over' incident," Balian said. "It seems like one of those unfortunate accidents."
Another man at the scene was taken in for questioning, but he was not arrested, Balian said.
Neighbors said the man, whom police did not identify, appeared "highly intoxicated."
"It was obvious that he had been drinking," Balian said.
The autopsy could be finished as early as today, said Capt. Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Investigations Bureau.
