Dayton City Police investigate just their third homicide in the last 12 years.
Officers got the call to an apartment building off Memorial Street about 2:30 Thursday morning.
They found 46-year-old Carlos "Cotton" McCuiston dead.
Investigators believe McCuiston and a friend were drinking and got into a fist fight.
McCuiston, who had bad health problems, apparently got hit in the head and collapsed.
Angry family member Allen Ray Smith reacted to the apparent homicide, "What happened up here, there was a drunken brawl. And my brother lost his life because of some street punk. So hopefully we get justice by the law or by the street."
Police sent McCuiston's body to Knoxville for an autopsy to determine a cause of a death.
They have not filed any charges pending the outcome of the autopsy.