DENVER - Authorities said a man who died of possible cyanide poisoning at a Denver hotel was 29-year-old Saleman Abdirahman Dirie of Ottawa.
The medical examiner's office is awaiting toxicology results after conducting an autopsy Tuesday.
Police say Dirie had been dead for several days when his body was discovered Monday in a room at the Burnsley Hotel, about four blocks from the Colorado State Capitol.
They said nothing suggests foul play.
The Denver Post newspaper website said little else has been disclosed about Dirie or why he visited Denver.
The Ottawa Sun reported Dirie was a member of the city's Somali community. He attended the Somali Centre for Family Services, said manager Addirizuk Karod.
"He came to the centre with friends," Karod said.
The Dirie family came to Ottawa as refugees years ago and had since become Canadian citizens, he said.
Dirie's father Abdirahman, who also lives in Ottawa, travelled to Denver when he received the news, Karod said.
Karod said the Ottawa Somali community will want answers.
"Everyone will be upset and will want to know what happened," he said.
Jason Ford, general manager of the 17-storey Burnsley hotel, said Tuesday he had no comment on Dirie or how long he had stayed at the hotel.
"We always protect the privacy of all our guests," he said.
The FBI is assisting in the investigation and the Post report quoted agents saying there is no evidence of terrorist links to the case.
The Democratic party's national convention is being held in Denver in less than two weeks.
The Post report said the Denver Coroner's Office found no obvious cause of death. Tests to determine cyanide poisoning will take at least a week and possibly longer, said chief deputy coroner Michelle Weiss-Samaras.
She said investigators found a small bottle of sodium cyanide, "which you can buy."
Cyanide is a highly poisonous, fast-acting chemical compound available from a number of sources, including medical research and mining, the U.S. national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
For a short time, streets were blocked off around the hotel until the level of hazardous-material risk was assessed. No other hotel guests or employees became ill and the contamination has not been found elsewhere in the hotel, Denver police said.
Federal and local investigators were back at the hotel Tuesday to further investigate the room where Dirie died, said FBI Special Agent Kathy Wright.
"I want to emphasize that the hotel is open for business as usual," she said.
"Our concern was with one room and one room only and we've completed our investigation there."
