A man died of hypothermia a few blocks north of the Columbia Heights Metro station over the weekend. (Photo by jng03)

An unidentified man in a wheelchair died of hypothermia on Sunday morning in Columbia Heights.

A woman walking her dog spotted him outside and called the police for help because he was unresponsive, according to The Washington City Paper, which first reported the man’s death.

Police responded the 3500 block of 14th Street around 7:10 a.m., according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The man was sitting in his wheelchair near an ambulance, unconscious and not breathing. Paramedics began to perform CPR on him, then transported him to Washington Hospital Center. He was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Marian Currinder told the City Paper that when she discovered the man, he was shoeless and “slumped over the side of his wheelchair” with a blanket covering him. It was about 30 degrees outside at the time, she said. Worried, she shook him, but got no response. She asked people nearby for help, but they declined so she went home to call the police.

When she came back, an ambulance was on the scene. She said an investigator told her that he died of hypothermia.

D.C.’s health apartment issued a hypothermia alert for 7 p.m. Saturday night, citing that the low temperature for the evening would be 35 degrees with an overnight chill of 30 degrees and wind gusts around 5 mph.

By law, the District guarantees shelter to the homeless on freezing nights, though beginning last spring they began offering year round shelter to families. According to the Interagency Council on Homelessness, two homeless people died last year of hypothermia in D.C. compared to 10 the previous year.

Currinder told the City Paper: “I hope he knows someone tried to help him. It’s just a horrible way to die. No one deserves to die like that.”