Posted on May 19, 2012.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office on Saturday identified the body of a man who was discovered in an Irwindale storage unit on Friday.
The body of Miguel Leyson Pedraza, 62, was discovered shortly after a driver rammed the gate of the storage facility in the 4300 block of Irwindale Avenue to force his way out, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
[update 2:28 p.m.: Authorities have arrested the driver of the car. Jonathan Pedraza, 24, the son of the victim, has been booked on suspicion of murder.]
The driver had been unable to leave because he did not have a security code to open the gate, and the facility staff refused to open it for him, authorities said. Witnesses wrote down the license plate and a description of the car.
Irwindale police responded around 4 p.m. to the facility, and while investigating they received a call from Baldwin Park police. Officers there had detained the driver of the car involved in the earlier confrontation after the car was involved in a traffic accident in that city.
Irwindale police were able to connect the car to a particular storage unit, where they found the body of the man. Authorities have not released the name of the driver.
-- Ruben Vives