Man whose body was found in riot wreckage officially identified five months later
The man whose body was found in the wreckage of a building that was burned during May's Minneapolis riots has been identified.
Oscar Lee Stewart Jr., 30, of Burnsville, died at Max It Pawn on Lake Street in Minneapolis, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.
"This individual died from probable inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injury from an intentional building fire and manner of death is homicide," the medical examiner says.
The medical examiner doesn't say when Stewart was injured but lists his death as July 20 – the day his body was found in the wreckage in July.
His body was found weeks after Max It Pawn was burned on May 28. Montez Terriel Lee, of Rochester, was charged in June, accused of setting fire to the pawn shop.
A Go Fund Me page created in August to help Stewart's family with medical expenses says his family insisted police search the pawnshop for Stewart for "nearly two months" before his body was discovered and DNA confirmed it was him.
Stewart is remembered as a father of five kids, ages 1 to 12, who was always willing to help someone who needed it, the page says.
The Minneapolis Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
Stewart's death is the 69th homicide in Minneapolis this year.
