A 60-year-old Davis man has died after he was found bleeding from the head on a sidewalk along Russell Boulevard, in an incident that is now under investigation by local police and the county coroner. Houman Tehranchi was discovered by officers responding to emergency calls in the 500 block of Russell Boulevard, where bystanders were already performing CPR when police arrived.
Officers responded shortly before 7:50 a.m. on Sunday to the scene, according to The Sacramento Bee. Davis firefighters and American Medical Response paramedics treated Tehranchi at the scene, but he died after receiving treatment. Separate reporting from The Davis Enterprise indicated emergency personnel responded at 7:45 a.m. to a medical aid call on the north sidewalk of the block, where Tehranchi was found injured while out walking his dog.
No Evidence of Foul Play So Far, Police Say
Davis Police Lt. John Evans, the department's spokesperson, said investigators have found no evidence of foul play in the case so far. Davis police and the Yolo County Coroner's Office are jointly investigating Tehranchi's death, and the coroner's office identified him publicly on Monday.
The distinction matters here: this is a death investigation, not a declared homicide probe. Under California Government Code Section 27491, the coroner's office is legally required to investigate all sudden, violent, or unattended deaths to establish cause and manner, according to Justia Law. Roughly 75% of investigated deaths do not require an autopsy. Tehranchi's cause of death remains undetermined.
Russell Boulevard Context
The 500 block of Russell Boulevard is near the Islamic Center of Davis, and a TKE building is also on Russell Boulevard. The stretch is part of a heavily used pedestrian and bicycle corridor; the City of Davis and UC Davis jointly launched the Reimagine Russell Boulevard project in 2021 to redesign the three-mile thoroughfare, which on a typical weekday carries more than 8,000 bicyclists and 20,000 motor vehicles.
Automated license plate reader information can help investigators establish potential timelines during major incidents. It is not clear from available reporting whether that technology has been applied in Tehranchi's case.
Same Stretch of Road Saw a Fatal Crash Days Earlier
Tehranchi's death comes just eleven days after a separate fatal two-vehicle collision on Russell Boulevard near County Road 97D west of Davis, reported by Hoodline, which shut the road down. The two incidents are not described as connected, but they mark a second major emergency response along the same corridor within two weeks.
The block has drawn law enforcement attention before. In January 2017, a vandalism incident at the Islamic Center of Davis, located on the same block, prompted a hate crime investigation, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. UC Davis Police Department separately tracks campus-adjacent crime data through the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System to maintain public safety transparency along university boundaries.
Statewide, violent crime has been trending downward. California Department of Justice statistics published in 2026 showed homicides dropped 18.6% in 2025, reaching a historic low rate of 3.5 per 100,000 residents. No cause of death has been officially released for Tehranchi, and Davis police have not indicated when the coroner's findings are expected.
