Man Found Dead Slumped Over Steering Wheel of Car Is Identified

The 43-year-old Pasadena man who died Monday morning after he was found slumped over the steering wheel of an SUV that was stopped near the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa has been identified as Jesus Banuelos Jr., the L.A. County Coroner’s office told Pasadena Now on Wednesday.

The cause of death remains unknown pending an autopsy, the coroner said.

Pasadena police Lt. Pete Hettema said on Monday that no foul play was suspected in the 6:15 a.m. incident.

“It looks like a medical (situation),’’ Hettema told Pasadena Now at the time.

Hettema said Banuelos’s car was stopped in the southbound lane of Sierra Madre Villa, two or three cars lengths before the Colorado Boulevard intersection. Apparently, he had stopped for a red light when he was stricken and remained at the spot as traffic ahead of him proceeded, Hettema said.

A passerby apparently noticed the situation and phoned it into police.

Hettema said that when police and paramedics arrived at the scene at about the same time, the person who had reported the incident was pounding on the SUV’s window, trying to wake the man but to no avail.

Originally, it was reported that Banuelos’s car was pointing in the wrong direction – north in the southbound lane – but in fact, a Pasadena police cruiser had parked, front bumper to front bumper, against the SUV to prevent it from possibly moving forward, according to Hettema.

It was not known if the SUV was running at the time emergency personnel arrived.

“The paramedics got there, tried to revive him, couldn’t find a pulse and scooted him off to the hospital, where we found later that he was pronounced (dead),’’ Hettema said.