The manager of a Finksburg video store was killed Saturday nightin Carroll County?s first homicide of the year, police said. Police would provide no motive or cause of death.
But neighbors, quoting family members, said the victim, Gary L. Hatfield, 54, of Manchester, had been fatally beaten with a fire extinguisher during an apparent robbery of H and D Movie Sales.
When Hatfield didn?t return home from work after 10 p.m. Saturday, his wife, Brenda, and son, Ryan, grew worried and went to check on him at H and D, which buys and sells adult and family videos, said Chris Crone, a neighbor and family friend of 30 years.
The pair found Hatfield bloody and unconscious near a counter at the rear of the store. Brenda, a nurse, tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“They noticed that $1,000 was missing. He got killed for a $1,000. Can you believe that?” Crone said.
Struck with shock and grief, Crone and another neighbor, Pam Bosley, embraced Sunday outside the Hatfields? home along a quiet Oak Street in a Manchester neighborhood that borders a farm.
Three years ago, Hatfield, who also sold cars, underwent open-heart surgery, followed by another surgery a year later on his deteriorating spine, Crone said.
“It?s senseless. He would have just handed over the money,” Bosley said. “I can?t believe it.”
Police have no suspects and are still awaiting the results of an autopsy, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.
Shipley declined to confirm whether it was a robbery and whether a fire extinguisher was the weapon, as the Hatfield family had told neighbors.
The homicide rattled other occupants of the Tower Center strip mall, which also houses a church, tattoo parlor, veterinary clinic, hair salon, pharmacy, tanning salon and scuba diving shop.
“It?s crazy,” said Scott Greenholtz, a manager at J&G Liquors, three stores down from the video store, which still had yellow police tape surrounding it Sunday morning.
“Especially since the man who killed his mom was a regular customer of ours. So this is the second one somewhat related to us. It?s starting to hit a little close to home.”
Eric Raymond Yates, who lived in a nearby trailer court, was charged in November with the murder of his mother after allegedly stabbing her 30 times.
