A vigilant reader wrote into PoPville today saying he saw a possible dead body in front of the Target in Columbia Heights this morning. The Prince subsequently posted this possible dead body sighting:

Black male 20 to 30 years old, in a black jacket, lying face down on the sidewalk in a small pool of blood. One cop standing next to him but people were still walking past. I walked within 4 feet of the body.

I didn’t check to see if he was actually dead, but there were no paramedics and the cop wasn’t interacting with him at all. Between the stillness of the victim, unnatural body position, the blood, and the indifference of the cop, it all added up to a dead body to me. I’d love to be wrong.

Worry not: the Metropolitan Police Department says have been no reports of a dead body found on the sidewalk in Columbia Heights. According to MPD spokesman Araz Alali, at about 8:16 a.m. this morning a man reportedly fell on a metal grate on the 3100 block of 14th Street. He was transported and treated for injuries.

Is this the incident the PoPville reader was referring to?  The timing and location are a match. Either way, police say there was no dead body found by Target.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery.