Deputies believe they may be close to identifying a man who was found lying dead next to a car in a Bonita parking lot Friday morning.
The body was found by a man searching the parking lot for aluminum cans just after 4 a.m. in the Bonnie Brae Shopping Center parking lot on Bonita Rd., said San Diego Sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos.
A passerby said they saw a man running through the parking lot, deputies said.
A nearby bar is rumored to have had several bar fights in the past, but detectives would not say if the case was linked to the establishment called El Caribe.
"We're looking into that and also looking at any surveillance tape that might be in that bar," Brugos said.
The investigation forced many of the businesses in the shopping center to close for the day. The only businesses allowed to remain open were a children's gym and a Starbucks.
One business owner said she had fresh bread delivered to her restaurant and had to store it the back of her car until deputies allowed her to open her business.
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"I keep asking them, each time they say one hour," Nisreen Stephan said. "It's getting too long."
Deputies said the victim did suffer some trauma, but deputies would not say what caused the man's death.
"There was trauma to the head," Brugos said. "At this point, it doesn't appear to be obvious as far as gun shot wounds or anything like that."
Homicide detectives will continue to investigate.