Neighbors of the senior citizen who killed a burglar who broke into his home blocked off their street Thursday to prevent the career criminal’s funeral procession from passing by, according to reports.
Tensions were high as the group stood their ground to prevent the hearse carrying Henry Vincent’s body from passing by the home of Richard Osborn-Brooks, the 78-year-old who killed Vincent after Vincent and another man broke into the senior’s home April 4.
“There is the possibility that they might bring the body down in a hearse first and do a pass-by and then go back and have the actual funeral [elsewhere],” one resident, who parked near Osborn-Brooks’ home in Hither Green, told the Guardian.
The senior citizen initially was arrested on suspicion of murder charges but then released without charges.
The community was divided in the wake of Vincent’s death: Neighbors defended Osborn-Brooks as having acted in self-defense while relatives and friends of the dead 37-year-old dad of three demanded justice in his slaying.
A memorial for Vincent — a career criminal who’d been busted for scamming elderly citizens out of cash — set up outside the septuagenarian’s home has been repeatedly desecrated.
There was a heavy police presence in town for Vincent’s funeral. Police said the procession wasn’t expected to pass by Osborn-Brooks’ home.
Outside the church where Vincent’s casket was brought, angry mourners pelted journalists with rocks and eggs and threw water at the crowd, according to the Guardian. One photographer was punched in the face.
Police tried to usher media away from the church ahead of time after the hostile crew threatened “big trouble” if journalists were there when the hearse arrived.