Updated 03/23/2010 08:38 PM
Police: Dead Man Found By Brooklyn Fire Had Cut Neck
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Authorities are investigating the death of a man found with a slash wound to his neck outside a building that caught fire in Brooklyn early Tuesday morning.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a man in his 30s was found behind the three-story building that caught fire on 56th Street in Sunset Park.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kelly said it is unclear whether or not the man's death was connected to the fire.
Neighbors told NY1 people were constantly coming in and out of the building, even though it had been been abandoned for years, and the city had been called about the issue.
"We were sleeping, of course, but we heard the whole commotion," said one neighbor. "It was like one [o'clock] in the morning, we saw all the firemen running up and down, taking people out on the ladder. They were up on the roof and they were just running up and down. There was a lot of smoke."
Fire officials said the fire spread to buildings on either side before it was brought under control.
Several firefighters were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The fire marshal will determine what caused the blaze.