Man Identified in Mysterious Parking Lot Death

Police have confirmed the name of the 27-year-old man found early Tuesday morning pinned under a white Chevrolet pickup truck at a public parking lot. He’s been identified as Nathaniel Curteman of Santa Barbara and Lompoc, The Lompoc Record also reported.

At approximately 12:23 a.m. on December 15, first responders arrived at City Parking Lot 11 on Anacapa Street to a report of a vehicle vs. pedestrian accident. In what city police called strange circumstances, Curteman was found “pinned underneath the front of a pickup truck in the lot.” Authorities said the investigation into the cause and manner of Curteman’s death is ongoing.

According to his online obituary, Curteman was born April 17, 1988 in Albany, Oregon and attended Oregon Culinary Institute. He had moved to California to be closer to his mother. In May 2014, Curteman and his friend Ruben Perez opened The Black Sheep restaurant at 26 E. Ortega Street, named in his obituary as “one of his most recent and proudest accomplishments.”