Family and friends remembered 53-year old Robert Proescher ? killed Wednesday night outside of Charlie Brown?s, a Rosedale bar ? as a troubled man, but a good neighbor and kind soul.
“This is shocking,” said neighbor Marsha McNeil. She said Proescher?s son Robbie, 24, was her son?s best friend.
“We talked quite a bit, he told me he had depression and anxiety,” said James Adams, who lived several doors down from Proescher in the 4700 block of Duncrest Avenue in the northeast corner of the city. “He?dgive you his last, though. … He was a good guy.”
Baltimore County police arrested Daniel Rushton, 32, in connection with the homicide. Rushton was initially charged Thursday with first-degree assault. After Proescher died, Rushton was charged with first-degree murder. Rushton, of the 5800 block of Westwood Avenue, is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center.
After an argument inside the bar and package goods store in the 4900 block of Hazelwood Avenue, police said, the victim was beaten outside with a hammer. Proescher was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died Friday.
Barry Butler, an employee at Charlie Brown?s, wasn?t working at the time, but was shooting pool at the bar and said Daniel Rushton had been calling Proescher names and provoking the older man.
“I?ve known Bob [Proescher] for 16 years,” said Butler. “He came in, sold his baseball cards, he watched the TV and played the poker machines. He didn?t have an argument with anybody the whole time I knew him. When he went to the bathroom, Dan [Rushton] threw his beer at him, and that?s when I kicked him out.”
Daniel Rushton, his brother John Rushton, and a third man, only identified as Nick, apparently waited in the parking lot for Proescher, who left to buy cigarettes at the store next door at about 8 p.m.
