SANTA ANA – A 44-year-old man was killed during an assault in a homeless encampment at the Civic Center Sunday night, and investigators were trying to unravel what had occurred.

The victim was Jesse Dean Dowell, a transient. Dowell was found in the Plaza of the Flags, treated by paramedics but declared dead at the scene shortly before midnight, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The plaza is a courtyard between the Orange County Superior Court and Santa Ana City Hall.

Dowell was involved in an altercation with as many as four other people in the plaza, but by Tuesday afternoon it was still not known what his cause of death was. No motive had yet been determined.

Anyone with information was asked to call the department’s homicide unit at 714-245-8390.