A man who was known to have begged for cash on street corners in Richmond Hill, Queens, was found dead about 5:40 a.m. Friday on a sidewalk next to a Sikh temple on 97th Avenue near 118th Street, the authorities said.

The man had suffered head injuries, and investigators said they found a stone and a stick near the body that might have been used in the killing. On Friday night, two traffic cones and a barrel linked by yellow police tape marked the place where the body was found, near the Sikh Cultural Society, which doubles as a community center and a prayer hall for the neighborhood’s large Sikh population.

The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, carried no identification, and the police did not know his name as of late Friday.

The man was familiar to people in the area, though the police said that residents interviewed on Friday did not know his name, where he lived or whether he had a home. At least one resident said that the man had a wife and children in India, and that he was probably from northwestern Punjab State because he spoke the language of that region.

That resident, Jasminder Singh, said that the man prayed at the Sikh temple twice a day, but that he did not wear a turban, as other Sikh men do. [Link]