LOS ANGELES - A 54-year-old homeless man was found dead Wednesday of apparent natural causes just outside City Hall East in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles police said they received a call around 7:40 a.m. about the man, who was found outside the municipal building in the 200 block of North Main Street.
Although police had no information on a possible cause of death, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer -- whose office is located in City Hall East -- told reporters the man appeared to have died from natural causes.
"It appears as though he passed away sometime overnight," Feuer said. "I do not know when."
An autopsy and positive identification of the man were pending, according to the coroner's office.
Feuer said the man's death highlighted the critical nature of the homeless crisis in the city, noting that "today we have to mourn this man" who "died alone at City Hall."
"As a city we need to do better than this," he said. "As a community we need to do better than this."
Feuer, who spoke to reporters about the death during a news conference on an unrelated topic, said "sometimes the statistics around homelessness become a little ethereal to people, the issues become abstract, and they're not."
"Of course, it really hits home when one of those human beings passes away in front of our workplace, especially when that workplace is the center of government for the second-largest city in the United States," he said.