Toledoan's fatal injuries caused by blunt force

9/29/2003

A 32-year-old Toledo man died of blunt-force injuries to the head, not a gunshot wound, as a coroner's investigator initially reported, police said yesterday.

The body of Manuel Zapata, of 240 21st St., was found about 6 a.m. Saturday slumped behind the wheel of his pickup truck in a vacant lot along Washington Street and 21st near downtown Toledo.

The victim died sometime between 10:30 p.m. Friday when a neighbor last saw him alive and 6 a.m. Saturday when a passerby saw him in the truck. An autopsy was performed yesterday.