The identities of both men were not immediately available, police said, but friends gathered at the scene identified the dead man as Danny Torres, a homeless man who they said grew up in Kensington and lived on the street because of a difficult relationship with his mother.
"He preferred to sleep outside," said Moses Rodriguez, 44, who said he attended Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School with Mr. Torres.
Workers and business owners on the heavily industrial block said the pair was likely among the handful of laborers who hang out along the strip, huddling together for company and sleeping in empty cars. Groups of men would line up early in the morning waiting for employers to pass through and pick them up for a day's work, said Andres Beato, 52, a contractor who said he has worked on the block for 25 years. When the laborers would return in the evening, they would spend the night in cars.
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"They didn't have no money to rent a room," Mr. Beato said.