Tacoma police investigating after body found in vehicle

Tacoma police determined after investigating that a man found dead Saturday in a car on Tacoma’s Hilltop appeared to have died of natural causes.

The man was discovered slumped over the wheel of a car parked in the 1000 block of Martin Luther King Way. The car had been parked there for some time, police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said.

City firefighters responded to a call about 1:20 p.m. The doors to the car were locked but they were able to get into the car.

The fire department initially believed the man had a gunshot wound, but upon further investigation the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office determined he did not, and instead appeared to have died from natural causes, Cool said Sunday.

An autopsy is expected to be done this week.

The News Tribune posted two stories online Saturday concerning the incident, one reporting the man had been shot and a later account reporting his death by natural causes.

Through a procedural error at the newspaper, both stories were online on The News Tribune’s website until Sunday morning when the mistake was spotted and corrected.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Tacoma police investigating after body found in vehicle."