A man was found dead “lying in a pool of blood” at the popular Burning Man arts and music festival on Saturday night, prompting a homicide investigation by local and federal officials in Nevada, the authorities said.
Deputies responded around 9:14 p.m. to a report of a man on the ground at the event’s campsite who was “obviously deceased,” Sheriff Jerry Allen of the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear how the man, whose identity the sheriff said was unknown, died. The body was taken to the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.
The body was reported as the “Man” — the towering wooden sculpture shaped like a man — was beginning to burn.
Several participants in the immediate area were interviewed, the sheriff said.
“This process is still ongoing and the portion of the ‘city’ where this occurred will have heavy law enforcement presence until the scene can be released,” he said.
The forensic science division of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office was called to help in the investigation along with rangers from the federal Bureau of Land Management, which manages the public land where the festival takes place.
“Although this act appears to be a singular crime, all participants should always be vigilant of their surroundings and acquaintances,” Sheriff Allen said. “There is no further information available at this time but it will be released as appropriate to provide for communication, while still preserving the integrity of the complicated investigation of a crime in a city which will be gone by the middle of the week.”
The festival, which began on Aug. 24 and runs through Monday, draws tens of thousands of people each year to Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis that pops up each year in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, about 120 miles northeast of Reno, Nev.
Johnny Diaz is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news from Miami.
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